How Secure Are AI Agents With My Business Data?
A practical AI-agent security checklist covering data handling, access scopes, prompt-injection tests, and approval for writes.
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Direct answer
Security is architecture, not marketing. Before connecting an agent to business systems, require narrowly scoped connectors, a clear commitment not to train on your data, encryption in transit and at rest, SSO, audit logs, and self-hosting when your requirements call for it. Start with read-only access; require human approval for every external write.
Key points
- Keep credentials in a secrets manager, never in prompts.
- Separate production and test environments; give each connector only the permissions its task needs.
- Test connectors against direct and indirect prompt-injection attempts before enabling write access.
Vendor questionnaire
- Where are prompts and outputs stored, for how long, and who can access them?
- Which subprocessors process this data?
- Can you provide current SOC 2 / ISO evidence, and what does it cover?
- Do you support customer-managed encryption keys?
- What is the incident-notification SLA?
Why these controls matter
OWASP recommends limiting an agent’s functions and permissions to the minimum necessary and requiring human approval for high-impact actions. Its prompt-injection guidance also recommends adversarial testing and clearly separating untrusted external content. See OWASP guidance on prompt injection and excessive agency.
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