Summary: Palo Alto Networks’ Chief Security Intel Officer has warned that AI agents now represent the most significant “insider threat” for 2026. As companies like Salesforce pivot toward “agentic interfaces,” these autonomous tools often operate with elevated permissions, making them prime targets for prompt injection and hijacking by external actors.
Business Impact: High. An hijacked AI agent can exfiltrate sensitive data, manipulate internal workflows, and bypass traditional security checks. This places immense pressure on procurement and SOC teams to vet “agentic” capabilities before deployment.
Why It Happened: The rush to achieve “AI productivity” led many firms to grant AI agents broad access to internal APIs without the same rigorous access controls used for human employees.
Recommended Executive Action: Implement a “Least Privilege” model for all AI agents. Conduct a comprehensive audit of all “agentic” tools currently in use and mandate a secondary approval layer for any AI-triggered financial or data-heavy transactions.
Hashtags: #AIAgents #InsiderThreat #CyberSecurity2026 #Salesforce #PaloAltoNetworks