With CISOs concerned about the proliferation of AI agents , Palo Alto Networks has announced a major upgrade to its Prisma AIRS security platform and enterprise browser , adding the ability to discover AI agents, models, and connections across the entire IT environment. The platform will also scan agents for vulnerabilities and allow administrators to simulate red team tests .
Following the completion of Palo Alto Networks' planned acquisition of Koi Security , Prisma AIRS 3.0 will also offer an AI Agent Gateway , providing a centralized level of control for enforcing agent runtime and identity security .
According to Gartner, 40% of business applications will be embedded with task-specific AI agents by the end of the year. Today, that figure is less than 5%. As organizations accelerate their digital transformation, agentic AI in business applications will move beyond individual productivity to set new standards for teamwork and workflow through smarter human-agent interactions.
See also: Reco targets AI agents' blind spots with new security feature
Palo Alto: Upgrade Prisma AIRS to address challenges with AI agent
To meet this challenge, Prisma AIRS is adding new ways to use AI to detect security issues in AI applications. In a pre-announcement to reporters, Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arorapredicted, “In the next five years, our customers will go through the most significant overhaul of their enterprise networks due to AI. Every CIO wants AI implemented yesterday,” he said.
“Every company wants to see how they can leverage AI as quickly as possible, they want to understand whether the AI transition is real, and if so, how CIOs should prepare. Can we use AI to deliver better cybersecurity outcomes? Yes, we can,” he said. But that won’t happen overnight. In fact, he said, the pace at which large language models (LLMs) are moving is significantly expanding the attack surface. Recently, there have been reports of AI agents, built by well-known companies, causing attacks within companies themselves. He didn’t cite specific examples, but last week Meta said there had been a serious internal security breach after a standalone AI agent exposed sensitive company and user data.
Arora said that in the future “there will be millions of agents traversing enterprise architectures — both agents commissioned by people like you and me, and autonomous ones. I haven’t met a CEO in the last three months who doesn’t have some ambition to start having AI agents effectively performing tasks within the enterprise. It’s slow progress, but the intent is there. And I can see a lot of system integrators and consultants out there promoting and helping customers with this transition.”
But Arora says there are risks.
See also: Manus 'My Computer': Turns your Mac into an AI agent
Risk mitigation
To address these, Prisma AIRS 3.0 will enable administrators to securely deploy AI applications. To increase visibility, the platform will detect AI agents running in cloud environments, on SaaS platforms, and on-premises with end users. A feature called Agent Artifact Security maps an agent’s architecture and checks for vulnerabilities, and another feature called AI Red Teaming for Agents simulates context-aware attacks , discovers AI-related vulnerabilities, and recommends security policies at runtime.
To further improve AI security, Palo Alto Networks has released a new version of Prisma Browser for enterprise end users, with expanded capabilities that allow employees to use any LLM they choose. The new version of the browser is capable of discovering user-generated AI activity and enforcingcontent-aware limits to keep agents within their intended scope.
The browser also prevents sensitive data from leaking to unmanaged or public AI tools during automated tasks, and detects and blocks prompt injection attacks, including malicious instructions designed to take over AI agents hidden within websites. Palo Alto Networks said the browser distinguishes, in real time, human actions from automated AI tasks.
By assessing the intentions of both human and non-human identities, Prisma Browser enables full accountability and compliance with evolving global AI regulations.
Next Generation Trust Security
Separately, Palo Alto Networks also announced a new digital certificate lifecycle management platform, following the completion of its acquisition of CyberArk last month.
🔒 Protect your privacy with Proton VPN
Swiss VPN from the creators of Proton Mail — strict no-logs policy, strong encryption, and built-in NetShield that blocks ads, trackers, & malware.
- ✔ No-logs, based in Switzerland (except 14-Eyes)
- ✔ NetShield: blocks ads, trackers & malicious domains
- ✔ Covers all devices — free version available
The link is an affiliate link — SecNews may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. It does not affect the independence of our article writing.
By integrating CyberArk’s machine identity intelligence into the network, NGTS bridges the gap between teams managing certificates and teams responsible for uptime, Palo Alto Networks said in a press release. The company said Next Generation Trust Security (NGTS) will help organizations address the fact that the maximum lifetime of digital certificates has just been reduced to 200 days from 398 days, and by 2029 it will drop to 47 days.
See also: Agentic AI: Fraud generates 4.5 times more revenue
Until now, many companies have been tracking certificates through spreadsheets, Palo Alto Networks says. NGTS discovers and manages the certificate lifecycle across the network for them. The company said NGTS also eliminates untrusted certificates and blind spots that lead to security gaps, protects the enterprise from certificate-related outages and trust failures by automatically identifying and renewing credentials before they expire and disrupt customer transactions or internal services. At the same time, it accelerates the transition to a post-quantum futureby handling faster renewal cycles and evolving encryption standards through automation. Palo Alto Networks has not announced pricing for NGTS.
Source: www.csoonline.com
