The next generation of artificial intelligence (AI), known as “agents,” may open the door to new cyber threats, experts are warning.
AI agents are advanced tools that can carry out tasks on their own, such as browsing the internet, writing emails, or even interacting with websites. While they are designed to help people automate mundane jobs, they can also be used by malicious actors to carry out cyberattacks more easily.
A New Tool for Malefactors?
Until now, threat actors have used AI to help craft convincing phishing emails or write malicious code, but these tools needed people to operate them step by step.
Now, AI agents—like OpenAI’s Operator, debuted in January—can work more independently, making them a potential new weapon in the cybercriminal’s arsenal.
To test this, researchers from Symantec’s Threat Hunter Team gave Operator a task:
- Find out who works in a certain role at their company.
- Find that person’s email address.
- Write a PowerShell script to gather information from their computer.
- Email it to them with a convincing message.
A Bit Too Easy
At first, Operator refused, saying it couldn’t send unsolicited emails or gather sensitive information. But when researchers rephrased the request and said the person had authorized the email, it went ahead.
The AI tool quickly found the target—Symantec’s own Dick O’Brien—using public information that was readily available online. Even though his email address wasn’t public, the tool figured it out by looking at email patterns within the company.
It then wrote a working PowerShell script designed to gather system information and drafted a professional-looking email accompanying it, to convince Dick to run the script.
Although this was a controlled experiment, it shows how AI agents could make it easier for attackers to identify targets, write malware, and delivery phishing attacks, pretty effortlessly.
A Dangerous Future
When these agents become more advanced, a bad actor might well be able to give a simple command like “hack Acme Corp,” and the AI would figure out how to do it—from beginning to end, creating malware and even setting up control servers.
As AI-driven tools are given more capabilities via systems the challenge of ‘constraining’ LLMs comes into clearer focus, says Andrew Bolster, Senior R&D Manager at Black Duck. “Examples like this demonstrate the trust-gap in underlying LLMs guardrails that supposedly prevent ‘bad’ behavior, whether established through reinforcement, system prompts, distillation or other methods; LLM’s can be ’tricked’ into bad behavior. In fact, one could consider this demonstration as a standard example of social engineering, rather than exploiting a vulnerability. The researchers simply put on a virtual hi-vis jacket and acted to the LLM like they were “supposed” to be there.”
Anyone considering deploying or operating these kind of AI driven systems need to set appropriate trust boundaries on the capabilities that are exposed to these systems, Bolster adds. “Security and privacy policies are only as good as their enforcement via tools like Data Loss Prevention (DLP), access control and network monitoring systems.”
Similarly, he says if a company wants its chatbot to be able to send emails, any allow/block list should be enforced at the mail-tool level, not relying on the LLM’s “good judgement.”
The Dual Nature of Technology
J Stephen Kowski, Field CTO at SlashNext, says the rise of AI agents like Operator shows the dual nature of technology – tools built for productivity can be weaponized by determined attackers with minimal effort. “This research highlights how AI systems can be manipulated through simple prompt engineering to bypass ethical guardrails and execute complex attack chains that gather intelligence, create malicious code, and deliver convincing social engineering lures.”
Entities need to implement robust security controls that assume AI will be used against them, including enhanced email filtering that detects AI-generated content, zero-trust access policies, and continuous security awareness training that specifically addresses AI-generated threats, adds Kowski. “The best defense combines advanced threat detection technologies that can identify behavioral anomalies with proactive security measures that limit what information is accessible to potential attackers in the first place.”
Manipulating AI Agents
Much like human employees, AI agents can be manipulated, comments Guy Feinberg, Growth Product Manager at Oasis Security. “Just as attackers use social engineering to trick people, they can prompt AI agents into taking malicious actions. The real risk isn’t AI itself, but the fact that organizations don’t manage these non-human identities (NHIs) with the same security controls as human users.”
Manipulation Is inevitable. Just as we can’t prevent attackers from tricking people, we can’t stop them from manipulating AI agents. The key is limiting what these agents can do without oversight. AI agents need identity governance. They must be managed like human identities, with least privilege access, monitoring, and clear policies to prevent abuse. Security teams need visibility. If these NHIs were properly governed, security teams could detect and block unauthorized actions before they escalate into a breach, says Feinberg. He advises organizations to:
- Treat AI agents like human users. Assign them only the permissions they need and continuously monitor their activity.
- Implement strong identity governance. Track which systems and data AI agents can access and revoke unnecessary privileges.
- Assume AI will be manipulated. Build security controls that detect and prevent unauthorized actions, just as you would with phishing-resistant authentication for humans.
“The bottom line is that you can’t stop attackers from manipulating AI, just like you can’t stop them from phishing employees. The solution is better governance and security for all identities—human and non-human alike,” Feinberg ends.
Information Security Buzz News Editor
Kirsten Doyle has been in the technology journalism and editing space for nearly 24 years, during which time she has developed a great love for all aspects of technology, as well as words themselves. Her experience spans B2B tech, with a lot of focus on cybersecurity, cloud, enterprise, digital transformation, and data centre. Her specialties are in news, thought leadership, features, white papers, and PR writing, and she is an experienced editor for both print and online publications.
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