As enterprises push agentic AI out of the proof-of-concept phase and into production, AI runtime security \u2014 the ability to enforce policy at the exact moment an agent acts \u2014 is proving to be the bedrock that makes autonomous systems safe enough to trust.<\/p>\n
The shift from cloud-native to AI-native is accelerating across every business function, spanning front-office automation to back-office process redesign. Yet most organizations are discovering that bolting security onto existing workflows after the fact is no longer viable. Agents that cross system boundaries, assume user identities and execute business processes in milliseconds demand a fundamentally different control architecture, according to Ram Poornachandran<\/a> (pictured, right), vice president of AI and architecture at F5 Inc., a multicloud application security and delivery company.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an incredibly hard problem,\u201d Poornachandran said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just the data. It\u2019s getting data to the agents and applying proper rule-backed access security to it. Is the agent working on my behalf and is it able to see only the data that I\u2019m allowed to access? How do you then have the agent take an action on behalf of you and have the proper audit trail?\u201d<\/p>\n Poornachandran and Gary Newe<\/a> (left), vice president of solutions engineering at F5, spoke with theCUBE\u2019s John Furrier<\/a> and Alison Kosik<\/a> at Google Cloud Next<\/a>, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media\u2019s livestreaming studio. They discussed AI runtime security, agentic governance and F5\u2019s role in securing enterprise AI deployments on Google Cloud. (* Disclosure below.)<\/p>\n AI runtime security demands observability at the inference layer<\/p>\n Securing agentic workloads requires a new lens on observability \u2014 one that moves beyond inspecting packets or application programming interface calls to understanding intent, context and the reasoning behind every agent decision, according to Newe. In response to emergent security demands, F5 recently introduced\u00a0a series of updates<\/a> as part of its broader Application Delivery and Security Platform to deliver that layer of runtime visibility and policy enforcement at the inference point.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe that these guardrails are best suited at the inference layer,\u201d Newe said. \u201cWhere the actual agents are making these decisions and interpreting this data, that\u2019s where we believe is kind of the place to secure this at scale.\u201d<\/p>\n Continuous testing is the second pillar, with F5\u2019s AI Red Team built to stress-test agent behavior across attack vectors before deployments go live. An IBM Corp. report<\/a> found that 97% of compromised organizations had zero AI access controls in place \u2014 a statistic that underscores why pre-production adversarial testing has become a non-negotiable step. AI Red Team creates a continuous security feedback loop by feeding its findings directly into AI Guardrails<\/a>, another F5 offering focused on runtime policy enforcement in production, Newe noted.\u00a0Agent drift poses an equal threat, as new data and models can silently erode an agent\u2019s effectiveness over time, Poornachandran added.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need to continuously monitor,\u201d Poornachandran said. \u201cYou don\u2019t want drift in the system. New data comes in, new models come in and the agent could not necessarily produce the effectiveness as when you [started] building it. That\u2019s why observability is important.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE\u2019s and theCUBE\u2019s coverage of Google Cloud Next<\/a>:<\/p>\n (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Google Cloud Next. Sponsors of theCUBE\u2019s event coverage do not have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)<\/p>\n Photo: SiliconANGLE<\/p>\n Support our mission to keep content open and free by engaging with theCUBE community. Join theCUBE\u2019s Alumni Trust Network, where technology leaders connect, share intelligence and create opportunities.<\/p>\n 15M+ viewers of theCUBE videos, powering conversations across AI, cloud, cybersecurity and more About SiliconANGLE Media<\/p>\n SiliconANGLE Media is a recognized leader in digital media innovation, uniting breakthrough technology, strategic insights and real-time audience engagement. As the parent company of SiliconANGLE<\/a>, theCUBE Network<\/a>, theCUBE Research<\/a>, CUBE365<\/a>, theCUBE AI<\/a> and theCUBE SuperStudios \u2014 with flagship locations in Silicon Valley and the New York Stock Exchange \u2014 SiliconANGLE Media operates at the intersection of media, technology and AI.<\/p>\n Founded by tech visionaries John Furrier and Dave Vellante, SiliconANGLE Media has built a dynamic ecosystem of industry-leading digital media brands that reach 15+ million elite tech professionals. Our new proprietary theCUBE AI Video Cloud is breaking ground in audience interaction, leveraging theCUBEai.com neural network to help technology companies make data-driven decisions and stay at the forefront of industry conversations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As enterprises push agentic AI out of the proof-of-concept phase and into production, AI runtime security \u2014 the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[179,7493,15309,4808,396],"class_list":{"0":"post-22155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-agentic-ai","8":"tag-agentic-ai","9":"tag-agentic-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-enterprises-turn-to-runtime-security-to-close-the-agentic-ai-trust-gap","11":"tag-kelly-knight","12":"tag-siliconangle"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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