The agentic enterprise: A CISO's strategic guide to identity scoping in chained AI workflows

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Executive Summary

The proliferation of agentic artificial intelligence represents a fundamental shift in enterprise operations, moving from human-driven interactions to autonomous, goal-oriented execution. Based on analysis of over 2,000 MCP server implementations, security assessments of 13 AI-related data breaches in 2025, and surveys of 1,491 global organizations, this whitepaper addresses the critical identity and access management challenges posed by chained agentic workflows.

The Model Context Protocol (MCP), rapidly emerging as the industry standard for AI interoperability, enables agents to dynamically orchestrate sequences of external tools and services. While 71% of surveyed organizations now use generative AI regularly, and 91% deploy AI agents in production, only 10% have well-developed management strategies. This gap creates a high-velocity attack surface where traditional Identity and Access Management (IAM) frameworks prove fundamentally inadequate.

Security research has identified that just two interconnected MCP plugins can raise exploit probability to 36%, jumping to 52% with three plugins and 92% with ten. In July 2025, an AI coding assistant deleted an entire production database in seconds despite explicit safeguards, highlighting the catastrophic potential of over-privileged agents. Industry analysis reveals that 80% of breaches now involve compromised credentials, and as one major platform CEO noted, "one compromised agent identity cascades across millions of automated actions."

The core vulnerability lies in three converging factors: agent autonomy operating at machine speed, the persistence of credentials across user sessions, and a decentralized ecosystem of tools lacking centralized security vetting. This combination amplifies classic security risks like the "confused deputy" problem while introducing novel threats including runtime tool poisoning, cross-session contamination, and compositional exploit chains.

This whitepaper presents a three-tiered strategic framework for managing session-level identity in agentic systems: foundational controls leveraging OAuth 2.1 and audience scoping (Tier 1), advanced architectures implementing Zero Trust and Just-in-Time access (Tier 2), and future-proofing through Verifiable Credentials and Confidential Computing (Tier 3). The report concludes with an 18-month operational roadmap for CISOs to guide their organizations through this transformation, from discovery and governance through pilot implementations to scaled deployment.

Mastering ephemeral identity is not merely a security upgrade - it is a prerequisite for securely harnessing the transformative power of the agentic enterprise.

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