AI models and autonomous agents have moved out of isolated experiments and into the core of enterprise operations. They are being connected to databases, business applications, cloud platforms, internal application programming interfaces (APIs), software development environments and third-party services.
That creates real business value. It also creates a security problem: what happens when an AI system has access to more of the organisation than it needs?
The risk is not that a model produces a wrong answer. It is that an AI application, agent or connected tool could be manipulated, compromised or misconfigured, and then use its access to reach sensitive systems, expose data or trigger actions nobody intended. As AI becomes more capable and more autonomous, businesses need to consider not only what their models can do, but where they can connect.
AI agents become privileged enterprise applications
Many companies are running AI services that touch sensitive information and critical infrastructure. These systems retrieve customer records, query financial databases, generate code, start workflows and call external services. In practice, that makes them another class of privileged application.
Traditional applications arrive with well-defined network requirements, clear ownership and an approval process. AI environments move faster. New models, tools, plugins and integrations appear within days, often without anyone fully mapping the connectivity they require. The result is overly broad access, unrestricted outbound connectivity and unnecessary exposure between AI workloads and sensitive business systems.
If an AI agent is compromised – through prompt injection, malicious content or a vulnerable third-party integration – that excess connectivity determines how far the damage spreads. The problem is not that the model broke out of the network. It is that it was already granted access to systems it should never have been able to reach.
Containing risk through connectivity governance
A secure AI strategy needs connectivity governance: a clear view of every system an AI workload can talk to, including internal applications, databases, cloud services, development platforms and third-party APIs. Each connection should then be tested against a simple question – is it necessary? – and restricted to its intended business purpose.
That means security and infrastructure teams mapping an AI application’s dependencies, assessing the risk of each proposed connection and enforcing least-privilege access. Rather than letting an AI service reach the internal network and the internet at large, organisations can limit it to the specific applications, services, ports and destinations it needs. If the workload then behaves unexpectedly or is compromised, the damage is contained.
Protecting connections to third parties
The danger is not that an AI agent can encounter malicious instructions through a third-party source or plugin. It is that those instructions can reach an agent that has already been given powerful tools, credentials and access to enterprise systems.
The Open Worldwide Application Security Project (Owasp) lists ‘excessive agency’ as a top risk in applications built on large language models, and traces it to three root causes: unnecessary functionality, unnecessary permissions and unnecessary autonomy.
Most AI deployments depend on external model providers, software-as-a-service platforms, plugins, data sources and APIs. Those dependencies deliver the capability. They also extend the attack surface.
Securing the model is not enough. Organisations have to govern what sits around it – its identity, permissions, tools, APIs, applications and network connections. An AI agent should be able to reach only what it needs to do its job, and security teams should be able to see, justify and continuously re-check every one of those connections.
AI changes how applications work. It does not change the principle of least privilege. It raises the cost of ignoring it.
- The author, Simone Santana, is regional sales director at AlgoSec, which is represented in South Africa by Solid8 Technologies
- Read more articles by Solid8 Technologies on TechCentral
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