{"id":94664,"date":"2026-08-20T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=94664"},"modified":"2026-08-19T15:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T22:36:08","slug":"inside-agentic-ai-arms-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/news\/stories\/inside-agentic-ai-arms-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Spy vs. Spy at Machine Speed: Inside the Agentic AI Arms Race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-style-media-wrapping-container\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The cybersecurity risks posed by AI took dramatic form recently through a villain with a sinister name: Jade Puffer. Security firm Sysdig applied that label to<a href=\"https:\/\/siliconangle.com\/2026\/07\/06\/ai-agent-exploits-langflow-first-fully-autonomous-ransomware-attack\/#:~:text=In%20the%20case%20researchers%20detail,the%20top%20of%20the%20scale.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> a ransomware attack<\/a> in which a human initiated the operation but an autonomous <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/agentforce\/ai-agents\/?d=cta-body-promo-8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">AI agent<\/a> independently carried out the entire technical intrusion, from reconnaissance to database encryption and deletion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed alignright is-type-video is-provider-vidyard wp-block-embed-vidyard\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" async src=\"https:\/\/play.vidyard.com\/embed\/v4.js\"><\/script><img decoding=\"async\"  style=\"width: 100%; margin: auto; display: block;\"  class=\"vidyard-player-embed\"  src=\"https:\/\/play.vidyard.com\/txf74o8yHtJrKYAeKiGyZz.jpg\"  data-uuid=\"txf74o8yHtJrKYAeKiGyZz\"  data-v=\"4\"  data-type=\"inline\"  data-width=\"500\"  data-height=\"187\"\/>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As malicious actors increasingly deploy automation to execute attacks, organizations must defend themselves with AI agents built to detect and neutralize the threats. Because these intrusions happen in milliseconds \u2014 far too fast for human intervention \u2014 defenders must design agents they can trust not to go rogue. Call it the AI version of Spy vs. Spy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;It can sound like cloak-and-dagger James Bond machinations,&#8221; said Muhammad Fraser-Rahim, Salesforce&#8217;s VP of Global Intelligence and Product\/Platform Risk. &#8220;But this is the moment we are in, and I don&#8217;t think we necessarily have to be afraid of it.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Greg Notch, CTO at cybersecurity company Expel, said agentic AI gives even low-skilled attackers sophisticated new weapons. But the technology also enables defenders to sift through the potential-attack alarms to identify the ones requiring action.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe generally have the agents do as much of the investigation as possible,\u201d Notch said. \u201cWe\u2019ll have AI-powered automation to take actions like resetting the identity verification on a laptop. But generally speaking, we want humans reviewing some of the AI work to make sure that it\u2019s producing the best outcomes.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At Salesforce, Fraser-Rahim said proactive enterprises that take a strategic approach to AI defense might even hold certain advantages over agentic attackers. Still, no one is downplaying the threat.<br><br>And it\u2019s not only bad actors. Frontier AI models can also pose agentic cybersecurity risks, if not carefully contained. That\u2019s why every agentic enterprise must ensure that no AI model has unchecked authority that could turn an honest error into a mission-critical emergency.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.darkreading.com\/threat-intelligence\/2026-agentic-ai-attack-surface-poster-child\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">readership poll<\/a> by the trade publication Dark Reading found that 48% of security professionals now identify <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/agentforce\/what-is-agentic-ai\/?d=cta-body-promo-8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">agentic AI<\/a> and autonomous systems as the digital world&#8217;s most dangerous attack vector. Furthermore, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.anthropic.com\/news\/AI-enabled-cyber-threats-mitre-attack\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">June report<\/a> from Anthropic found that &#8220;high risk,&#8221; AI-enabled threats rose to 56% of total cyber incidents, up from 33% a year earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Cyberattacks are becoming more autonomous,&#8221; the Anthropic report said, &#8220;and the fact that AI can be used to chain together many parts of the attack means that the old ways of differentiating high- from low-risk actors are no longer as effective.&#8221;<br><br>Kelly McCracken, Deputy Chief Information Security Officer and SVP of Security Operations&nbsp; at Salesforce, said an old security maxim has new urgency: &#8220;We have to be right every time. The threat actors only have to be right one time.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now the question facing enterprises is no longer whether to fight AI with AI but how to do it without their own defenses overreacting in ways a human wouldn&#8217;t. Security teams must avoid overcorrections, such as an autonomous agent shutting down an entire hospital data network when an attacker compromises only a single, noncritical application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-same-as-it-ever-was-but-at-warp-speed\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Same as it ever was, but at warp speed<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ask Salesforce&#8217;s security leaders how AI has changed the threat landscape, and the answer isn&#8217;t a new category of attack. It&#8217;s velocity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFinding vulnerabilities has never been the hardest part of the job,\u201d said Iain Mulholland, Chief Information Security Officer at Salesforce. \u201cThe difficult task is fixing them rapidly, reliably, and at scale. That is where the acceleration of remediation enabled by agentic AI models is genuinely game-changing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vulnerabilities that once gave defenders a comfortable runway now demand near-instant response. &#8220;We may have had the benefit of having seven-plus days to patch in the past,&#8221;&nbsp; McCracken said. &#8220;Now we have to patch it in less than an hour.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That speed, and the attackers\u2019 advantage in needing to be right only once, is what makes autonomous defensive agents necessary but also risky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tyler Waldo, Senior Director of Vulnerability &amp; Environmental Threat Assessment at Salesforce, described the stakes starkly: &#8220;If that agent&#8217;s wrong about a threat and it leads to an action like shutting down something for a customer, it could cause significant business impact.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-humans-at-the-helm\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Humans at the helm<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Doug Miller, Salesforce VP of Integrated Threat Management, compared the process of trusting an AI agent to onboarding a new hire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;It&#8217;s almost like training a new employee,&#8221; Miller said. &#8220;At some point you get comfortable with their ability to make decisions. The difference is these agents don&#8217;t sleep. So how do you build the right guardrails to protect from floods of false positives or the wrong actions being taken?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Salesforce&#8217;s answer, according to McCracken, is to keep a human on the trigger for anything with real consequences. &#8220;The button to cause any type of availability outage should be pushed by a human,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The collateral damage from a rogue defensive agent doesn&#8217;t necessarily stop at a data outage. Fraser-Rahim, whose team also oversees physical security, points to a convergence of AI with the physical infrastructure that most enterprises haven&#8217;t fully reckoned with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Imagine you have AI agents that have gone rogue or hallucinated,&#8221; he said. &#8220;What happens to systems that need to interface between the cyber and the physical worlds?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He highlighted a daily scenario: an office building where authorized employees must badge in from the lobby or require elevator access to certain floors. If an AI agent misjudges who should have access, the consequences show up immediately and physically: an employee locked out of their own building or, worse, someone who shouldn&#8217;t have access getting in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;&#8220;All these dynamics have to be perfectly aligned, and it\u2019s why it\u2019s crucial to have human oversight,&#8221; Fraser-Rahim said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-running-salesforce-on-salesforce\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Running Salesforce on Salesforce<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Much of Salesforce&#8217;s confidence derives from treating itself as its first and toughest customer. This Customer Zero posture is built across three layers: what\u2019s invisible to customers, what\u2019s configurable by them, and what\u2019s enhanceable through add-ons. New foundational AI models aren&#8217;t creating new categories of cyber vulnerability. Instead, they\u2019re making it possible to find and exploit existing weak links at a volume and velocity never before possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">McCracken noted that Salesforce has purpose-built a vulnerability agent to close that gap, an invisible layer that continuously triages Salesforce&#8217;s exposure. &#8220;It allows anyone who has access to it to ask, &#8216;Are we impacted by a certain vulnerability?'&#8221; McCracken said. &#8220;It&#8217;s scanning the entire enterprise to determine if Salesforce is impacted.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Detection is only part of the equation. The agent also triages and recommends a fix. This is how the work that once had a seven-day runway can now be closed in under an hour.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One rung up is what\u2019s configurable. For Agentforce, that starts with the Trust Layer,&nbsp; which protects customers and their end users when interacting directly with foundational AI models. Customers can shape it themselves, setting their own rules for which prompts are allowed or blocked. That governance layer, Miller said, can identify malicious activity &#8220;not just at the prompt but also at the execution.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fraser-Rahim noted that such capabilities underscore the value of Salesforce&#8217;s Customer Zero posture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We run Salesforce on Salesforce,&#8221; Fraser-Rahim said. &#8220;So if we had something impacting a customer, what actions would they take? Can we take those same actions ourselves beforehand? We&#8217;re able to identify gaps early because we have access to the same technology our customers do.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the vulnerability agent is an internal capability, its findings also strengthen the protections Salesforce provides to its customers. It complements enhanceable tools like Shield, Event Monitoring, and Security Center, which give them deeper visibility into their own organizations. Together, the three layers form a single strategy \u2014 internal defenses that strengthen the platform, native controls customers can configure, and products for additional layers of protection \u2014 each sharpening the others as new threats emerge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<aside class=\"more-from-block more-from-block--2 alignfull wp-block-newsroom-moreontopic\">\n\t<div class=\"more-from-block__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"more-from-block__title\">Related<\/h4>\n\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"more-from-block__cards more-from-block__cards--2\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\n\n<article\t\t\tdata-card-id=\"94226\"\n\t\tclass=\"content-card content-card--large-inline is-entire-area-clickable content-card--is-boxed\"\n\t\t\tdata-clickable-area-link=\"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/news\/press-releases\/2026\/07\/02\/ai-for-good-global-commission-announcement\/\"\n\t>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"content-card__image-container\" itemprop=\"image\" itemscope itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\">\n\t\t\t<img 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https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/07\/AI-for-Good-Global-Commission.png?w=1218&amp;h=685 1218w\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t<div class=\"content-card__content-container content-card__content-container--style-\">\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<h3 itemprop=\"headline\" class=\"content-card__title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/news\/press-releases\/2026\/07\/02\/ai-for-good-global-commission-announcement\/\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttarget=\"_blank\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"content-card__title-link\"\n\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGlobal leaders launch AI for Good Global Commission to expand access, strengthen trust and accelerate impact\u00a0\t\t\t\t<\/a>\t\t\t<\/h3>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div itemprop=\"readTime\" class=\"content-card__read-time\">\n\t\t\t\t4 min 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class=\"content-card__title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/news\/stories\/call-to-leaders-regulated-industries-ai\/\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttarget=\"_blank\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"content-card__title-link\"\n\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Regulated Industries Imperative: Why the Agentic Era Demands Leadership\t\t\t\t<\/a>\t\t\t<\/h3>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div itemprop=\"readTime\" class=\"content-card__read-time\">\n\t\t\t\t6 min read\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n<\/article>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<noscript>\n<div class=\"pagination-fallback\">\n\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94664\/page\/2\/?bc=OTH#section-title\">\n\t\t\tOlder Posts\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/noscript>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-resilience-extends-beyond-enterprise-walls\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Resilience extends beyond enterprise walls<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the agentic era of cybersecurity, business resilience involves an entire enterprise ecosystem, including the vendor supply chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Resilience is the ability to absorb the shock and then recognize how to move on from that moment, post-shock,&#8221; Fraser-Rahim said. \u201cIt&#8217;s also a conversation with the supply chain, making sure we&#8217;re in tandem with them about the standards we have and that we hold each other accountable.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He pointed to a growing sophistication of phishing attempts, where convincing emails and phone calls can trick even employees into exposing credentials and granting unintended access to their systems \u2014 a stark reminder that a single compromised account or a vendor&#8217;s weak link can impact an entire organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whether coordinating with customers, partners, or suppliers, this accountability extends to agent design. &#8220;You treat agents as individual identities,&#8221; Miller said, &#8220;and you ensure that any actions they take are reversible and recoverable.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Complicating the picture is the volatility of the AI models that attackers and defenders alike increasingly rely on. Rather than lock into one vendor, Waldo said Salesforce is developing infrastructure designed to work regardless of the AI model or models in use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We&#8217;re building a harness so we can swap models in or out,&#8221; he said, &#8220;so we&#8217;re not contingent on a given company or a given model, depending on what might happen to the availability of those models.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whatever the new security risks posed by agentic AI, the experts agree the fundamentals of cybersecurity remain largely unchanged. They point to a familiar set of safeguards: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/platform\/zero-trust\/?d=cta-body-promo-8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">zero-trust identity<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/blog\/principle-of-least-privilege\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">least-privilege access<\/a>, and strict isolation between systems, along with granular controls that limit which tools and data an AI agent can access and what actions it can take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The same principles apply to the AI agents themselves. Continuous monitoring, audit trails, and rigorous testing help organizations detect problems and understand what happened when things go wrong. And authorized people must retain the ability to intervene, pause, or revoke an agent\u2019s actions when necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The technology may be new, but the security discipline is not: Limit access, verify continuously, monitor relentlessly, and keep humans in control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"h-a-board-level-problem\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A board-level problem<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A unifying message from security experts is that organizations can\u2019t delegate agentic defense solely to a security team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Expel\u2019s Notch said the stakeholders must include boardrooms and C-suites. \u201cFor a board, I would say you make sure you&#8217;re asking the right questions of whether you&#8217;re funding the defenses of AI properly. Are you funding the necessary data compliance and technical controls in order to protect this?\u201d Notch said. \u201cAt the operating executive level, the questions are, \u2018Do we have authentication handled correctly? Are we monitoring data access? Are we able to understand what people are doing and what they&#8217;re doing with our data?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fraser-Rahim emphasized that the conversation requires voices well beyond engineering. &#8220;You should have philosophers and poets and other nontraditional folks who are part of the conversation,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It takes a true enterprisewide, whole-of-government approach.&#8221; That includes the board of directors, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the risks for the agentic cybersecurity landscape, Miller sees an underappreciated advantage for defenders: The best white hats know their cybersecurity systems inside and out. They have time to prepare for the battles that await.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;This is the one space where defenders have a limited opportunity to actually move faster than attackers,&#8221; Mulholland said. &#8220;We know our own environments better than anyone. That\u2019s the home turf advantage, and attackers don&#8217;t have it.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The cybersecurity risks posed by AI took dramatic form recently through a villain with a sinister name: Jade Puffer. Security firm Sysdig applied that label to a ransomware attack in which a human initiated the operation but an autonomous AI agent independently carried out the entire technical intrusion, from reconnaissance to database encryption and deletion. 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