Securing AI agents: a governance checklist for CISOs

Autonomous AI agents introduce a new class of risk: systems that can take actions, not just generate text. For CISOs, this means extending existing access control and audit practices to cover agent behavior.

Start with least-privilege access scoped per agent role, mandatory human approval for high-impact actions, and full action-level audit logging. Combine this with regular red-teaming of agent workflows, not just the underlying model.

Governance frameworks that treat agents like any other privileged service account — rather than a black box — tend to catch issues long before they become incidents.