The Evolution of Artificial Intelligence: Agentic AI Security Risks and Data Protection with Forcepoint Data Security Cloud

Artificial intelligence technologies are evolving rapidly. While classic generative AI (Generative AI) acts as a smart assistant responding to queries, the new wave of automation — autonomous AI, or Agentic AI — is fundamentally changing the rules of the game. AI agents are capable of acting independently: formulating subtasks, making decisions, interacting with external services, and executing complex workflows without constant human oversight.

This leap in productivity opens up huge opportunities for businesses, but simultaneously creates critical risks for information security. Chief information officers (CIOs) and chief information security officers (CISOs) need to rethink their approaches to protecting the corporate perimeter and sensitive data today.

Main security risks when using Agentic AI

The deployment of autonomous agents expands the attack surface and creates new vulnerabilities that cannot be covered by traditional control tools. Forcepoint experts highlight several fundamental threats that modern security teams face.

First, there is the issue of excessive privileges and over-privileged data access. For an AI agent to perform complex tasks (e.g., analyzing the sales funnel or processing tech support tickets), it is granted broad read and write permissions across corporate databases, CRM systems, and cloud storage. This turns the agent into a high-priority target for attackers: by gaining control over it, a hacker automatically gains access to the entire connected data ecosystem.

Second, there is a risk of AI supply chain compromise. Modern agents often utilize third-party plugins, libraries, and external integration servers. The emergence of hidden Shadow Agents deployed by employees bypassing the IT department, or vulnerable external protocols, creates unmonitored channels for commercial secrets and personal data to leak outside the company.

Key differences between AI systems and leakage risks

Classic Generative AI

• How it works: Responds to direct user requests (prompts).
• Autonomy level: Low, completely controlled by a human within a single session.
• Data risk: Limited to accidental submission of confidential information into the chat window.

Autonomous Agentic AI

• How it works: Receives a high-level goal and independently plans the steps to achieve it.
• Autonomy level: High, has access to APIs, databases, and third-party applications.
• Data risk: Exponential, due to unmonitored data movement between services and the threat of executing malicious commands.

The core danger lies in a phenomenon known as indirect prompt injection (Indirect Prompt Injection). If an AI agent analyzes external data — such as incoming emails or web pages — an attacker can embed hidden instructions there. The autonomous agent will execute them automatically. A striking example was the notorious EchoLeak vulnerability, where instructions hidden in documents forced AI assistants to discreetly send confidential corporate files to external attacker servers without any user interaction. This is a classic example of agent goal hijack, where the system begins to work against its owner.

Granting AI agents freedom of action without implementing contextual data protection is a direct path to large-scale security incidents and loss of control over corporate information.

Data protection in the era of autonomous AI with Forcepoint Data Security Cloud

To minimize the risks associated with using smart agents, organizations need full visibility and tight dynamic control over data flows. Traditional DLP systems focused on static rules cannot cope with the dynamic AI environment. An effective solution to this problem is the cloud platform Forcepoint Data Security Cloud, which combines the capabilities of advanced DLP and data security posture management (DSPM).

This cloud solution provides end-to-end monitoring and data protection wherever it resides — in cloud storage, web traffic, on employee endpoints, or within AI service integration channels. Forcepoint Data Security Cloud allows you to securely adopt innovation thanks to the following technological advantages:

• AI Mesh classification network architecture: Forcepoint utilizes the intelligent AI Mesh structure for lightning-fast and highly accurate classification of both structured and unstructured data. The system precisely determines the data confidentiality level (personal data, intellectual property, source code) and blocks its transfer to unauthorized AI agents.
• Continuous data discovery and DSPM: The platform conducts continuous automated auditing of the organization's digital environment, helping to fight data sprawl. This allows security professionals to see where critical files are located and which AI applications have access to them.
• ARIA adaptive AI assistant: The built-in intelligent assistant ARIA (Adaptive Risk Intelligence Assistant) analyzes millions of security signals in real time. ARIA helps administrators instantly identify gaps in defense and activate security rules using natural language queries, maintaining full control over policies.
• Integration channel control (API and Web): The solution monitors autonomous agent actions and web resource requests, preventing unauthorized data export to untrusted AI services and blocking the use of unauthorized tools (Shadow IT).

Using Forcepoint Data Security Cloud allows CISOs and CIOs to deploy AI-driven automation tools with confidence that corporate secrets and regulatory data remain securely protected, and any anomalies in system behavior will be immediately stopped.

Why you should contact Softprom

Implementing comprehensive data protection systems requires deep expertise and an understanding of the modern AI threat landscape. Softprom is an official distributor of Forcepoint solutions and offers expert support at every stage of the project. The company's specialists will help conduct a risk audit, deploy a free pilot project of Forcepoint Data Security Cloud in your infrastructure, and provide qualified technical support. Contact us for a consultation.