Identity-First AI Security: Adding Intent to Access
🔐 Today’s enterprise AI agents are no longer passive assistants but active operators that authenticate to systems using API keys, OAuth tokens, cloud roles, and service accounts. The article advocates treating every agent as a first-class identity with unique identities, lifecycle management, defined roles, clear ownership, and auditability. It warns that identity alone is insufficient because agents are dynamic and can drift from original missions; instead it promotes intent-based permissioning, activating privileges only when an agent's declared mission and runtime context justify the action. Practical steps include inventorying agents, assigning lifecycle-managed identities, documenting approved missions, and enforcing conditional access based on identity, intent, and context.
