AI Agents Are Rewriting the Rules of Lateral Movement

Security teams have traditionally focused on whether an identity has excessive access, but the emergence of AI agents introduces a new challenge. The concern now is determining the potential paths an autonomous system can discover with its existing access. Unlike humans or traditional applications, AI agents are tireless in their efforts to complete tasks, making their behavior harder to predict. This relentless pursuit of goals by AI agents raises questions about their potential to move laterally within a system. The behavior of AI agents is less predictable than that of deterministic applications, which follow a predetermined flow. The introduction of AI agents is changing the way security teams must think about access and movement within a system.