Agentic AI—it’s the hot new thing in the tech space and drove much of the conversation at RSAC in April. But with the promise of technology comes, predictably, more threats, and an expanded threat surface.

IT Brew was on the show floor at RSAC and we talked to industry leaders about the potential of agentic AI and the possibility that its adoption could introduce new problems, as well as solutions.

Clarity on topic. For those unfamiliar, agentic AI is a deployment of generative AI wherein LLMs are used to interact with users as “agents” and make autonomous decisions within a limited framework. The effect can seem like AI agents acting on their own, though there is some amount of human oversight.

But in order to ensure the information is monitored safely and that the agents push out the right data, vigilance is crucial. CrowdStrike Field CTO for the Americas Cristian Rodriguez told IT Brew that in his view, the need for an overall visibility strategy over the information involved is key to ensuring agentic AI avoids external manipulation.

“Data governance, data protection, visibility, IAM assessments are all really part of that strategy to ensure that someone’s not taking advantage of an agentic model,” Rodriguez said.

More on how CrowdStrike works with companies like Nvidia.—EH

Google says it rolled out a restriction to guard against a tricky phishing attack that involved inventive tactics like creating a site URL and coming up with a really, really long app name.

The added defense arrives in response to Apr. 16 revelations from founder and lead developer at Ethereum Name Service, Nick Johnson, who provided details on X of what he described as an “extremely sophisticated phishing attack.”

“We’re aware of this class of targeted attack from this threat actor and have rolled out protections to shut down this avenue for abuse,” Google Workspace spokesperson Ross Richendrfer shared with IT Brew in an email. “In the meantime, we encourage users to adopt two-factor authentication and passkeys, which provide strong protection against these kinds of phishing campaigns.”

What’s so sophisticated?—BH

There’s still a place for the human touch.

AI is driving the future of cybersecurity, but even with all the innovations the technology is introducing, the framework of existing, human-driven security remains necessary.

At RSAC, the April tech conference in San Francisco that brings together security experts from around the world, IT Brew attended a roundtable featuring leaders from Accenture, Nvidia, and CyberArk. During the conversation, and in discussions following the panel, we learned about how these cybersecurity trendsetters are looking at the role of AI in the industry.

Nvidia CSO David Reber said during the panel that while the tech was evolving fast, human control is still important—even as we talk in terms of petabytes.

“AI is just software, data is just software,” Reber said. “However, it’s a size and scale that we’ve not had to comprehend before, so your typical cyber solutions, it’s an upgrade.”

Here are more insights from the roundtable.—EH

AI tools are flooding the workplace—but not always with IT’s blessing. Join us and industry experts to unpack how shadow IT is evolving in the AI era, why it’s here to stay, and how teams can manage the chaos without stifling innovation. Register here.