How do we secure AI agents on our network?

Why are AI agents a different security problem?#

An AI agent acts, and a chat tool only answers. An agent is software that uses an AI model to read, decide and do things on its own: send an email, change a record, call another system. So the risk is what it can do, and with whose permissions.

Three things set it apart from a person at a keyboard:

• It holds keys. To do its job it's connected to systems and data, often several at once.
• It acts without a person approving each step. A mistake can repeat all day.
• It reads text it didn't write. A web page or an email can carry instructions that steer it somewhere its owner never intended.

The network matters because agents talk over it. They reach models, your systems and the outside world. That's where you can see what they reach, and limit it.

Before you call anyone#

Tell Clectiv AI what each agent does and what it can touch before any vendor demos its agent security. Then Clectiv AI runs the process: a bid to each of the providers that fit, a real competition, and you choose at the end. Call one first and its product defines your problem for you.

Start a project

What controls apply to agents today?#

The basics are the ones you already use for people, applied harder. Four of them:

• Its own identity. Every agent gets its own account, never a shared login or a person's. You can then tell what it did, and switch it off alone.
• Least access. Only the systems and data the job needs, for only as long as it needs them.
• What it may reach. The apps, systems and internet destinations it can connect to. Everything else is blocked.
• What it may send out. Data rules on what leaves, the same as for employees.

Then keep a record of everything it touches. A log answers the question you'll ask afterward: what did it do?

List every agent, what it reaches and who owns it with Clectiv AI.

Several providers now list products for this, each in its own words.

Zscaler, Palo Alto Networks, Cato Networks, Fortinet, Cloudflare and Liminal all list security or governance for AI and agents.

These are some of our network providers that do it, and Clectiv AI runs the process for you: start a project.

We know this road. Clectiv AI runs the process that worked for other buyers, so you start where they finished. The plan goes straight to these providers, for the best pricing, terms and contract we can get on each.

Treat each as a claim to test. These are new products, and the descriptions are the providers' own.

What should we ask anyone who says they secure agents?#

Four questions separate a product from a slide.

• Which agents can you see? Only ones built on your platform, or any agent on your network, including ones staff set up themselves?
• Can you tell one agent from another? Its own identity and its own log, or one shared?
• Can you stop one agent without stopping the rest?
• What ships today, and what's on a roadmap? In a new field, the difference matters.

The plan asks the rest, from where the logs live to who gets alerted overnight.

One hint: ask to see it stop one of your own agents, live. A demo on someone else's proves nothing about yours.

Agents are one part of your security. The rest is on the security page.

Common questions#

How does Clectiv AI get this done?#

Start with Clectiv AI. Tell it which agents you run or plan to, and what each one can touch. It scopes the controls with you and writes your plan: every agent, its identity, its reach, and what gets logged.

Then the Clectiv team takes your plan to the network and AI security providers that fit, all at once, through our partner network of 620+ providers. They bid for your business and compete with each other, the team pushes on terms, and you choose the one you like.

Companies like yours already climbed this. Clectiv AI runs the process we ran with them, so you start where they ended up. That's how you get the best pricing, terms and contract we can get from the providers that fit.

It's free to you, and it's days, not months. Everything we cover in network is on the network page.

Starting with your people's access? Read how to give employees safe access to AI.