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Enterprise agent platforms are arriving fast, but so are the risks. Microsoft’s new Agent 365 focuses on agent registries and security oversight, while Salesforce’s Agentforce 360 and OpenAI’s AgentKit push build‑and‑ship workflows into production. At the same time, OWASP’s LLM Top 10 warns about prompt injection, excessive agency, and insecure plugins—and recent reporting shows AI being used in coordinated hacking campaigns. If you plan to scale AI agents in 2026, you need a security baseline you can ship in weeks, not quarters. [Sources: Wired, TechCrunch, TechCrunch, OWASP, AP]

What “good” looks like

An effective baseline gives you:

• Clear identity for every agent (and its tools), with traceable actions.
• Least‑privilege permissions and isolation boundaries that contain blast radius.
• Telemetry that matters—end‑to‑end traces, evals, and alerts for risky behavior.
• Repeatable tests against OWASP LLM Top 10 risks and known exploit classes.
• Governance mapping to NIST AI RMF and your internal controls for auditability.

This guide is vendor‑agnostic and designed to complement your platform choices. If you’re exploring platform options, see our RFP/scorecard and interop stack guides for 2026. RFP & Scorecard · Agentic Interop Stack

The 30‑day rollout

Week 1 — Inventory and Identity

• Inventory every agent (internal and vendor‑hosted). Capture owner, purpose, data access, tools, and deployment surface (chat, email, API, browser).
• Create an agent registry. Even a spreadsheet works to start, but aim for a proper registry with persistent Agent IDs, human owners, and lifecycle status. If you’re piloting Microsoft Agent 365, this is where it shines. Wired
• Issue identities (service accounts, keys, or OAuth clients) to agents and not to humans. Separate human vs. agent credentials.
• Map inter‑agent calls if you use agent‑to‑agent protocols (A2A). Note who can invoke whom and why. TechCrunch
• Quick wins: turn off unused tools/connectors; expire stale API keys; enforce MFA where relevant.

Week 2 — Permissions and Isolation

• Enforce least privilege by scoping tool access (read vs. write; account vs. object level). Most agent incidents are permission problems in disguise.
• Sandbox risky capabilities (browsing, code execution, file system) and prefer allowlists for network egress.
• Secrets management: load secrets at runtime; never hardcode. Rotate on schedule and on incident.
• Separate environments and datasets (dev/stage/prod). Route test agents away from live customer systems.
• Contain “excessive agency” with human‑in‑the‑loop for high‑impact tasks (payments, PII exports). See OWASP LLM Top 10 for agent‑specific risks. OWASP

Week 3 — Telemetry, Evals, and Alerts

• Instrument end‑to‑end traces using OpenTelemetry conventions for GenAI where available—capture prompts, tool calls, errors, and decisions for every step.
• Define “risky event” signals: prompt injection patterns, privilege escalation attempts, excessive tool retries, high‑variance responses, and anomalous spend spikes.
• Write SLOs for safety and reliability (e.g., tool‑call success rate, blocked high‑risk actions, MTTR for incident rollback). See our Agent Reliability Engineering playbook.
• Stand up evals that include adversarial tests and regression suites. Track drift when models or prompts change.

Week 4 — Testing, Runbooks, and Sign‑off

• Red‑team for OWASP LLM Top 10: prompt injection, insecure output handling, sensitive info disclosure, system prompt leakage, and “excessive agency.” OWASP
• Tabletop an incident (agent goes rogue; supplier SDK vulnerability; token leak). Verify kill‑switches and credential rotation.
• Document runbooks for rollback, revocation, and customer communication. Align to NIST AI RMF and the GenAI Profile so you can prove control coverage. NIST AI RMF · GenAI Profile
• Executive sign‑off that specifies allowed use cases, risk tiers, and review cadence.

Practical blueprint (example)

Use case: a support agent across WhatsApp, email, and Shopify.

1. Registry: record the agent’s ID, owner, and tools (WhatsApp API, email, Shopify Admin). See our step‑by‑step build: Agentic Support Desk in 30 Days.
2. Permissions: read‑only to orders by default; write access limited to draft refunds; no PII export without human approval.
3. Isolation: separate sandbox store; restricted egress; browser disabled except for allowed domains.
4. Telemetry: trace each interaction; alert on refund attempts, CSV exports, or unusual rate spikes.
5. Testing: adversarial prompts (refund abuse; policy bypass); verify blocks and escalation paths.

Choosing tools (neutral guidance)

• Agent registries: early enterprise options like Microsoft Agent 365 emphasize identity, permissions, and oversight. Wired
• Build/deploy stacks: Salesforce Agentforce 360 and OpenAI AgentKit target faster agent shipping with governance hooks and connector registries—evaluate their security primitives, not just features. TechCrunch · TechCrunch
• Interop: if you use A2A, document trust boundaries carefully and log cross‑agent invocations for audit. TechCrunch
• Security testing: align your red‑teaming to OWASP LLM Top 10; track real‑world agent incidents to refresh tests. Tom’s Guide · AP

Governance and cost: connect the dots

Security isn’t a separate lane. It works alongside governance, reliability, and FinOps. Use this baseline with our guides to round out your program:

• 30‑Day Agent Governance Starter
• Agent Reliability Engineering
• Agent FinOps 30‑60‑90
• Pilot Microsoft Agent 365 in 14 Days

Your 10‑point checklist

1. Every agent has a unique ID, owner, and purpose recorded.
2. Human vs. agent identities are separated; secrets rotated and vaulted.
3. Explicit allowlists for tools, data, and network egress; high‑risk actions require approval.
4. Prod data is never exposed to dev/test agents.
5. OpenTelemetry traces capture prompts, tool calls, and decisions end‑to‑end.
6. Risky‑event alerts fire and page the right people.
7. OWASP LLM Top 10 tests pass for priority agents and are in CI.
8. Incident runbooks and kill‑switches are documented and tested.
9. Governance mapping to NIST AI RMF/GenAI Profile is complete.
10. Executive sign‑off defines allowed use cases and review cadence.

Bottom line

Agent security can’t wait for a multi‑quarter platform program. Use this 30‑day baseline to measure what you have, shrink blast radius, and instrument what matters—so you can scale agents with confidence in 2026.

Call to action: Want help pressure‑testing your plan? Subscribe for our upcoming templates, or book a 30‑minute Agent Security Baseline workshop with HireNinja.