AI Agent Security Cheat Sheet

One in five organizations can’t verify if unsanctioned AI agents are active — but visibility is within reach when governance leads every deployment.

What’s Inside

AI agents can act fast — and that’s the governance challenge. Once an agent interacts directly with data, visibility and control must align to keep operations safe. This cheat sheet breaks the problem into a clear, actionable structure:

• The four key AI agent risks: data leakage, shadow agents, input manipulation, and governance gaps.
• Practical guardrails: do’s and don’ts for permissions and approval workflows.
• Governance alignment: questions to match regulatory and operational controls to real-world use cases.
• A five-step framework: discover, identify, guard, audit, and recover — simple, secure, and scalable.

What You’ll Learn

• Gain the tools to secure every AI agent across your organization:
• Identify how agents can expose data or disrupt operations.
• Apply proven best practices for assigning permissions and authorizations.
• Align governance decisions with agent interactions across departments and systems.
• Implement AvePoint’s 5-step agent security framework — discover, identify, guard, audit, recover.  

Take Control of Your AI Agents Before They Act on Your Data

Leading with visibility builds trust. Download AvePoint’s step-by-step framework to discover every agent, define secure controls, and plan recovery — so every autonomous action is governed, not guessed.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are the biggest security risks of AI agents?  

The principal AI agent risks include data leakage, shadow agents, input manipulation, and governance gaps. Risks increase when agents act on data without aligned governance controls.

2. What are shadow AI agents?  

Shadow agents are unregistered or unapproved AI agents operating without ownership or oversight. Without a centralized inventory, they can accumulate unnoticed and access data beyond governance visibility.

3. How can organizations secure AI agents?  

Organizations can strengthen agent security with a structured framework: discover, identify, guard, audit, and recover. This approach ensures visibility, establishes the right controls, and enables swift recovery when incidents occur.