As AI agents become embedded across business operations, they are also creating a new category of insider risk. Unlike traditional insiders, these non-human identities can act at machine speed, operate continuously and access multiple systems without direct human oversight.
The danger rarely stems from one obvious security failure. Instead, it emerges when several weaknesses overlap. Here are four common ways organisations inadvertently create non-human insider risk:
1. Persistent access
Long-lived API keys, OAuth tokens, service accounts and standing privileges give agents constant access long after it is needed.
2. Excessive privilege
Many agents can read, write, modify, approve, delete or deploy far more than their actual tasks require.
3. Untrusted input
Agents consume information from emails, support tickets, documents, chat conversations, websites and repositories. If attackers can influence those inputs, they may also influence the agent’s decisions.
4. Limited behavioural monitoring
Many organisations can tell that an AI agent performed an action. Far fewer can determine whether that action actually made sense. Logging tells us what happened, understanding whether it should have happened is a different challenge altogether.
You can read the full blog from Erich Kron, CISO Advisor at KnowBe4. Stay tuned for part 2 where Erich will reveal what security teams should do to stay secure.
