The thinking behind AI security review.
Threat models, governance evidence, and the decisions that hold up under scrutiny. Written for security architects and the committees they report to.
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Threat modeling, governance evidence, and what AI Committees actually need — written for security architects and AI governance leads. No cadence promises.
The EU AI Act timeline and what to prepare first
The EU AI Act applies in phases. Different provisions came into effect at different dates, and the obligations for high-risk systems differ from those for GPAI. This piece maps the timeline and the preparation steps that deliver the most value first.
The OWASP Agentic Top 10, explained for security reviewers
The OWASP Agentic Top 10 identifies the ten highest-risk threat categories for agentic AI systems. This walkthrough explains each one in terms a security reviewer can act on, with the controls and evidence requirements for each.
System prompt leakage and why it matters for security
System prompts encode assumptions, scoping rules, persona instructions, and sometimes credentials. When they leak, they expose the system's trust model. This piece explains why this matters more than most teams believe.
The AI bill of materials (AI-BOM) for security review
An AI bill of materials documents the components of an AI system: base models, fine-tuning datasets, inference infrastructure, plugins, and dependencies. It is the foundation of a security review and a requirement under several emerging governance frameworks.
A lightweight AI security review for fast-moving teams
Large-enterprise review processes do not scale to a 10-person team shipping an AI feature next sprint. This piece defines the minimum-viable AI security review: three questions, three artefacts, one decision record.
What makes an AI decision record defensible
A defensible AI decision record is one that a regulator, auditor, or procurement officer can read — without access to the people who made the decision — and understand what was decided, why, and what commitments were made. This piece defines the standard.
Reviewing how an AI vendor handles your data
What happens to the data you send to an AI vendor? Is it used for training? Who can access it? Where is it stored? These questions are not always answered in the DPA. This piece defines the data-handling review for AI vendors.
NIST AI RMF vs ISO 42001 — choosing a governance backbone
The NIST AI RMF and ISO 42001 are the two most widely adopted AI governance frameworks. This piece compares them across five dimensions — structure, audience, certification, integration, and evidence — to help organisations choose a starting point.
Securing an internal MCP server exposed to agents
Internal MCP servers — built to expose internal tools, databases, or APIs to agents — have different security requirements than public MCP servers. This piece defines the review checklist for an internally-hosted MCP server.
Evaluating a RAG pipeline for security, not just relevance
RAG evaluation frameworks are designed to measure retrieval quality and answer relevance. Security evaluation asks different questions: what data boundaries does the pipeline cross, what can be extracted, and what controls enforce the intended scope?
General-purpose AI obligations under the EU AI Act
The GPAI provisions of the EU AI Act introduce obligations for foundation model providers. This piece explains what GPAI means, which obligations apply, and what deployers of GPAI-powered systems need to understand.
Privilege escalation paths in agentic AI
Agentic AI privilege escalation does not require a kernel exploit. It requires a model that can be convinced to invoke a tool it was not intended to invoke. This piece maps the escalation paths and the review controls that block them.
Free resources
Practical templates for every framework covered here.
AI Security Review Template
Full review pack with threat model, controls, and evidence grading.
OWASP Agentic Top 10 Controls
Each risk mapped to required controls and lifecycle gates.
AI Risk Disposition Memo
Clearance decision template with rationale and sign-off log.
AI Go-Live Security Checklist
Production gate checklist for security architects and CISOs.