HiddenLayer in the News
See how our research, leadership, and innovations are shaping the global conversation on AI security.
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HiddenLayer Unveils Agent Harness Security to Protect AI-Powered Software Development at Runtime
HiddenLayer announces Agent Harness Security, a runtime security solution that protects AI coding agents from prompt injection, secret exposure, unsafe commands, and other runtime threats while preserving developer productivity.
Austin, TX, August 3, 2026 - HiddenLayer, the leading AI security company, today announced Agent Harness Security, a new solution that extends the HiddenLayer AI Security Platform’s Runtime Security module to secure AI coding agents at runtime. The new solution gives security teams the runtime control they need to safely scale AI-assisted software development by protecting source code, secrets, and infrastructure from unsafe agent actions without slowing developers down. Built on HiddenLayer's AI Security Platform and powered by HiddenLayer's adversarial AI threat research, Agent Harness Security integrates directly into each coding agent's native hook surface to detect and stop prompt injection, sensitive data exposure, and unsafe command execution as they occur.
AI coding agents are rapidly becoming central to enterprise software development. Gartner predicts that by 2028, 90% of enterprise software engineers will use AI code assistants, up from less than 14% in early 2024. But these tools have moved far beyond mere code suggestions. They can now run shell commands, modify repositories, install dependencies, and act on context pulled from files, tool outputs, and external sources.
That shift turns every developer's machine into an AI execution environment, where prompt injection embedded in a README or a poisoned tool response can turn legitimate developer access into the attack path. Organizations cannot safely scale AI coding agents unless they can see what those agents are doing and stop unsafe actions when needed. They also cannot rely on controls that sit outside the workflow and slow developers down, breaking the productivity gains AI coding tools were meant to deliver.
Agent harnesses are the execution environments that enable AI agents to plan, reason, and take actions by connecting models with context, memory, tools, skills, and orchestration logic. As organizations increasingly adopt AI agents, these harnesses create a new runtime attack surface where indirect attacks can influence agent behavior and lead to data exposure, unauthorized actions, or other security risks.
For AI coding agents, Agent Harness Security provides inline runtime control within the coding agent workflow. It gives security teams visibility into agent activity across prompts, tool calls, shell commands, file edits, and repository interactions. It can redact sensitive information before a model sees it, steer agents away from poisoned tool responses, and stop unsafe actions before they pose a risk. Because every coding agent exposes different controls, HiddenLayer applies the strongest enforcement each platform supports and clearly shows security teams what is working, where it is working, and why.
"AI coding agents are now among the most active AI systems inside the enterprise. They run on developer machines, execute commands, modify source code, and act on sensitive context in real time," said Chris Sestito, CEO of HiddenLayer. "Securing them takes more than deciding whether to allow or block an action. Security teams need to control what agents see, reason over, and act on before something goes wrong. That is what our Agent Harness Security solution delivers, securing AI coding agents today, and it's what enterprises need to scale AI coding agents with confidence."
With Agent Harness Security, organizations can:
- See what AI coding agents are doing in the codebase. Follow coding agent activity from the prompt that started the task through the files opened, commands run, dependencies installed, code changed, and pull requests prepared. Security and AppSec teams get the session context they need to quickly investigate behavior.
- Catch threats inside the development workflow. Detect prompt injection embedded in source files and tool outputs, secrets flowing into AI tool calls, unsafe command execution, malicious or unexpected dependency installs, and obfuscated payloads designed to evade review.
- Keep developers moving while reducing risk. Redact secrets before they reach the model and steer agents away from poisoned tool responses with corrective context. Where block-only enforcement would interrupt a long-running CI/CD pipeline and force a developer to step in, content-shaping lets the agent continue safely on its task and preserves the productivity gains AI coding agents were brought in to deliver.
- Trust what is actually enforced. Get clear reporting on which controls are active for each coding agent and the enforcement level supported by each platform. Security teams can see whether an action was detected, redacted, blocked, or limited by the underlying agent platform.
“As we scale the use of AI coding agents across our engineering organization, maintaining visibility and control is essential. Our focus is not only on enabling engineers to benefit from AI, but also on empowering citizen developers to experiment with confidence — all while ensuring agent activity can be monitored, governed, and constrained when necessary. That’s what gives us the confidence to move fast in a space where security and compliance can’t be an afterthought.” - Jaclyn Miller, CPO & Vanessa DeGennaro, VP of Engineering at Zivian Health.
HiddenLayer’s Agent Harness Security solution is available today as a stand-alone solution, securing AI coding agents and extending HiddenLayer’s runtime protection directly into developer environments where AI agents read code, execute commands, and interact with enterprise systems.
Learn more about Agent Harness Security and how it secures AI coding agents at runtime. Visit hiddenlayer.com/coding-agents or contact sales@hiddenlayer.com to schedule a demo.
About HiddenLayer
HiddenLayer secures agentic, generative, and predictive AI applications across the entire AI lifecycle, from discovery and AI supply chain security to attack simulation and runtime protection. Backed by patented technology and industry-leading adversarial AI research, our platform is purpose-built to defend AI systems against evolving threats. HiddenLayer protects intellectual property, helps ensure regulatory compliance, and enables organizations to safely adopt and scale AI with confidence.
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HiddenLayer Announces Mike Bruchanski as Chief Product Officer
“Mike’s breadth of experience across the B2B enterprise software lifecycle will be critical as HiddenLayer executes on its mission to protect the machine learning models behind today’s most important products,” said Chris Sestito, CEO and Co-founder of HiddenLayer. “His expertise will play a key role in accelerating our product roadmap and enhancing our ability to defend enterprises’ AI models against various threats.”
Austin, TX - August 27, 2024 – HiddenLayer today announced the appointment of Mike Bruchanski as Chief Product Officer. Bruchanski brings over two decades of product and engineering experience to HiddenLayer, where he will drive the company’s product strategy and pipeline, and accelerate its mission to support customers’ adoption of generative and predictive AI.
“Mike’s breadth of experience across the B2B enterprise software lifecycle will be critical as HiddenLayer executes on its mission to protect the machine learning models behind today’s most important products,” said Chris Sestito, CEO and Co-founder of HiddenLayer. “His expertise will play a key role in accelerating our product roadmap and enhancing our ability to defend enterprises’ AI models against various threats.”
Bruchanski joins HiddenLayer from Elementary, where he was Vice President of Product, driving the advancement of the company's offerings and market growth. Previously, he held similar roles at Blue Lava, Inc., where he shaped the product vision and strategy, and at Cylance, where he managed the company’s portfolio of OEM products and partners.
With a strong foundation in engineering, holding degrees from Villanova University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Mike combines a technical background with experience in scaling organizations’ product strategies. His leadership will be invaluable as HiddenLayer continues to innovate and protect AI-driven systems.
“The acceleration of AI has introduced new vulnerabilities and risks in cybersecurity. I’m excited to join the talented team at HiddenLayer to develop solutions that meet the complex challenges facing enterprise customers today,”
said Bruchanski.
About HiddenLayer
HiddenLayer is the leading provider of security for AI. Its security platform helps enterprises safeguard the machine learning models behind their most important products. HiddenLayer is the only company to offer turnkey security for AI that does not add unnecessary complexity to models and does not require access to raw data and algorithms. Founded by a team with deep roots in security and ML, HiddenLayer aims to protect enterprise AI from inference, bypass, extraction attacks, and model theft. The company is backed by a group of strategic investors, including M12, Microsoft’s Venture Fund, Moore Strategic Ventures, Booz Allen Ventures, IBM Ventures, and Capital One Ventures.
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HiddenLayer Joins the Coalition for Secure AI
“AI has never been easier to develop, use, and implement within organizations. As deployment continues to surge, so does the need to adopt common security standards and best practices in AI security,” said Malcolm Harkins, Chief Security & Trust Officer, HiddenLayer. “HiddenLayer is proud to join the CoSAI in our shared mission to support the widespread adoption of AI security principles.”
Austin, TX - August 06, 2024 – HiddenLayer today announced it has joined the Coalition for Secure AI (CoSAI), a new initiative aimed at tackling the cybersecurity risks associated with artificial intelligence (AI). Hosted by the OASIS global standards body, CoSAI is an open-source initiative designed to give all practitioners and developers the guidance and tools they need to create Secure-by-Design AI systems. HiddenLayer will be engaged in all of CoSAI’s priority initiatives, and an active part of its ecosystem to share open-source methodologies, standardized frameworks, and tools.
“AI has never been easier to develop, use, and implement within organizations. As deployment continues to surge, so does the need to adopt common security standards and best practices in AI security,” said Malcolm Harkins, Chief Security & Trust Officer, HiddenLayer. “HiddenLayer is proud to join the CoSAI in our shared mission to support the widespread adoption of AI security principles.”
The coalition’s initial focus will be on three main areas:
- Software supply chain security for AI systems: enhancing composition and provenance tracking to secure AI applications.
- Preparing defenders for a changing cybersecurity landscape: addressing investments and integration challenges in AI and classical systems.
- AI security governance: developing best practices and risk assessment frameworks for AI security.
Housed under OASIS Open, the international standards and open source consortium, CoSAI includes founding members such as Amazon, Anthropic, Chainguard, Cisco, Cohere, GenLab, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NVIDIA, OpenAI, PayPal, and Wiz.
“As a founding member and co-chair of CoSAI, I am thrilled to have HiddenLayer join us,” said Omar Santos, Security & Trust Organization, Cisco Systems. “With HiddenLayer’s technical expertise and collaboration, we are eager to help organizations around the world to address emerging threats more effectively.”
For more information about CoSAI, visit https://www.coalitionforsecureai.org/.
About HiddenLayer
HiddenLayer is the leading provider of security for AI. Its security platform helps enterprises safeguard the machine learning models behind their most important products. HiddenLayer is the only company to offer turnkey security for AI that does not add unnecessary complexity to models and does not require access to raw data and algorithms. Founded by a team with deep roots in security and ML, HiddenLayer aims to protect enterprise AI from inference, bypass, extraction attacks, and model theft. The company is backed by a group of strategic investors, including M12, Microsoft’s Venture Fund, Moore Strategic Ventures, Booz Allen Ventures, IBM Ventures, and Capital One Ventures.
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HiddenLayer Joins Center for Threat-Informed Defense in Research Initiative to Secure AI Systems
HiddenLayer is proud to announce its participation in the Secure AI project, a new research initiative by the Center for Threat-Informed Defense. Through this collaborative project, HiddenLayer will advance its mission to protect AI-enabled systems by contributing technical expertise and resources to the MITRE ATLAS™.
HiddenLayer is proud to announce its participation in the Secure AI project, a new research initiative by the Center for Threat-Informed Defense. Through this collaborative project, HiddenLayer will advance its mission to protect AI-enabled systems by contributing technical expertise and resources to the MITRE ATLAS™.
"We are excited to be part of this project and contribute to the expansion of the ATLAS framework,” said Tom Bonner, Vice President of Research at HiddenLayer. “Community-driven knowledge bases like ATLAS are essential resources for securing AI-enabled systems and supply chains against attacks."
MITRE ATLAS is a knowledge base of adversarial machine learning tactics, techniques, and case studies designed to help cybersecurity professionals, data scientists, and their companies stay up to date on the latest attacks and defenses against adversarial machine learning. The ATLAS matrix is modeled after and complementary to the MITRE ATT&CK framework, which is well-known and used in the cybersecurity industry to understand attack chains and adversary behaviors.
HiddenLayer joins a diverse group of industry leaders from communications, finance, healthcare, and technology sectors, such as Microsoft Corporation, Booz Allen Hamilton, Intel, and JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., who are contributing their expertise and resources to develop this vital community resource.
The Secure AI project aims to:
- Expand the ATLAS knowledge base through incident sharing metrics and mechanisms.
- Document new case studies within ATLAS that address vulnerabilities in industry-relevant systems, including generative AI.
- Describe new relevant mitigations based on documented AI incidents.
- Align ATLAS tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) with the current version of MITRE ATT&CK TTPs.
"We welcome HiddenLayer to the Secure AI project and know their deep expertise in AI model security research will be invaluable in enhancing the ATLAS and addressing the unique challenges posed by AI-enabled systems,” said Jon Baker, Director of the Center for Threat-Informed Defense.
HiddenLayer's participation in this initiative aligns with its core mission to secure AI models and contribute to collaborative research communities. By joining forces with MITRE and other industry leaders, HiddenLayer aims to bolster the defenses of AI systems globally.
For more information about the Secure AI research project, visit the Center for Threat-Informed Defense.
About HiddenLayer
HiddenLayer is the leading provider of security for AI. Its security platform helps enterprises safeguard the machine learning models behind their most important products. HiddenLayer is the only company to offer turnkey security for AI that does not add unnecessary complexity to models and does not require access to raw data and algorithms. Founded by a team with deep roots in security and ML, HiddenLayer aims to protect enterprise AI from inference, bypass, extraction attacks, and model theft. The company is backed by a group of strategic investors, including M12, Microsoft’s Venture Fund, Moore Strategic Ventures, Booz Allen Ventures, IBM Ventures, and Capital One Ventures.
About the Center for Threat-Informed Defense
The Center is a non-profit, privately funded research and development organization operated by MITRE Engenuity. The Center’s mission is to advance the state of the art and the state of the practice in threat-informed defense globally. Comprised of participant organizations from around the globe with highly sophisticated security teams, the Center builds on MITRE ATT&CK®, an important foundation for threat-informed defense used by security teams and vendors in their enterprise security operations. Because the Center operates for the public good, outputs of its research and development are available publicly and for the benefit of all.
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HiddenLayer Collaborates with Microsoft Azure AI to Enhance Model Security
"We strongly advocate for the parallel acceleration of AI innovation and security solutions," said Chris Sestito, CEO and Co-founder of HiddenLayer. "With the integration of our Model Scanner into the Azure AI catalog, we're dedicated to establishing a secure avenue for the broad adoption of AI technologies."
Microsoft Azure AI Deploys HiddenLayer Model Scanner to Protect Customers Using Open Source Models
Austin, TX - May 21, 2024 — HiddenLayer, the leading security provider for artificial intelligence (AI) models and assets, today announced Microsoft Azure AI as a new user of its Model Scanner. The Model Scanner will scan third-party and open-source models in the model collection curated by Azure AI, providing verification that they are free from cybersecurity vulnerabilities, malware, and other signs of tampering.
"We strongly advocate for the parallel acceleration of AI innovation and security solutions," said Chris Sestito, CEO and Co-founder of HiddenLayer. "With the integration of our Model Scanner into the Azure AI catalog, we're dedicated to establishing a secure avenue for the broad adoption of AI technologies."
Open-source models are favored for their affordability and flexibility, but they can be susceptible to malicious exploitation. By validating that open-source models have been scanned by Model Scanner, Azure AI can help security teams streamline AI deployment processes and empower development teams to fine-tune or deploy open models safely and with greater confidence.
“We see a need for proactive security solutions that allow developers to deploy AI models safely–and feel confident fine-tuning these models with their own proprietary data,” said Sarah Bird, Chief Product Officer of Responsible AI at Microsoft. “Integrating HiddenLayer into our model onboarding process is the validation that our customers need as they drive competitive differentiation with AI.”
HiddenLayer Model Scanner recognizes all major machine learning model formats and frameworks and analyzes their structure, layers, tensors, functions, and modules to identify suspicious or malicious code, vulnerabilities, and integrity issues. Key capabilities enabled by HiddenLayer in the Azure AI model catalog include:
- Malware Analysis: Scans AI models for embedded malicious code that could serve as an infection vector and launchpad for malware
- Vulnerability Assessment: Scans for common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) and zero-day vulnerabilities targeting AI models
- Backdoor detection: Scans model functionality for evidence of supply chain attacks and backdoors such as arbitrary code execution and network calls
- Model Integrity: Analyzes an AI model’s layers, components and tensors to detect tampering or corruption
Read more about the benefits for Azure AI customers in the Microsoft Blog.
View HiddenLayer Model Scanner on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace.
About HiddenLayer
HiddenLayer is the leading provider of security for AI. Its security platform helps enterprises safeguard the machine learning models behind their most important products. HiddenLayer is the only company to offer turnkey security for AI that does not add unnecessary complexity to models and does not require access to raw data and algorithms. Founded by a team with deep roots in security and ML, HiddenLayer aims to protect enterprise AI from inference, bypass, extraction attacks, and model theft. The company is backed by a group of strategic investors, including M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund, Moore Strategic Ventures, Booz Allen Ventures, IBM Ventures, and Capital One Ventures.
Contact
Maia Gryskiewicz
SutherlandGold for HiddenLayer
hiddenlayer@sutherlandgold.com
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HiddenLayer Named Winner of Global InfoSec Awards during RSA Conference 2024
“We’re honored to be recognized by Cyber Defense Magazine as the market leader for securing Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Models. AI is the most vulnerable technology ever deployed within production systems, and this recognition speaks directly to our mission to protect organizations from the inevitable attacks resulting from the rapid adoption of AI,” said Christopher Sestito, CEO and co-founder of Hiddenlayer.
HiddenLayer Wins Market Leader for Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning in 12th Annual Global InfoSec Awards at RSAC 2024
AUSTIN, Texas - May 6, 2024 – HiddenLayer, the leading security provider for artificial intelligence (AI) models and assets, today announced it has been awarded the Market Leader for Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning from Cyber Defense Magazine (CDM), the industry’s leading electronic information security magazine.
“We’re honored to be recognized by Cyber Defense Magazine as the market leader for securing Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Models. AI is the most vulnerable technology ever deployed within production systems, and this recognition speaks directly to our mission to protect organizations from the inevitable attacks resulting from the rapid adoption of AI,” said Christopher Sestito, CEO and co-founder of Hiddenlayer.
“HiddenLayer embodies three major features we judges look for to become winners: understanding tomorrow’s threats, today, providing a cost-effective solution and innovating in unexpected ways that can help mitigate cyber risk and get one step ahead of the next breach,” said Gary S. Miliefsky, Publisher of Cyber Defense Magazine.
HiddenLayer proudly joins a group of prestigious winners located here: http://www.cyberdefenseawards.com/
Join HiddenLayer at RSA Conference 2024, as they celebrate the win on their website and social media channels.
About HiddenLayer
HiddenLayer is the leading provider of Security for AI. Its security platform helps enterprises safeguard the machine learning models behind their most important products. HiddenLayer is the only company to offer turnkey security for AI that does not add unnecessary complexity to models and does not require access to raw data and algorithms. Founded by a team with deep roots in security and ML, HiddenLayer aims to protect enterprise’s AI from inference, bypass, extraction attacks, and model theft. The company is backed by a group of strategic investors, including M12, Microsoft’s Venture Fund, Moore Strategic Ventures, Booz Allen Ventures, IBM Ventures, and Capital One Ventures.
About CDM InfoSec Awards
This is Cyber Defense Magazine’s twelfth year of honoring InfoSec innovators from around the Globe. Our submission requirements are for any startup, early stage, later stage, or public companies in the INFORMATION SECURITY (INFOSEC) space who believe they have a unique and compelling value proposition for their product or service. Learn more at www.cyberdefenseawards.com
About Cyber Defense Magazine
Cyber Defense Magazine is the premier source of cyber security news and information for InfoSec professions in business and government. We are managed and published by and for ethical, honest, passionate information security professionals. Our mission is to share cutting-edge knowledge, real-world stories and awards on the best ideas, products, and services in the information technology industry. We deliver electronic magazines every month online for free, and special editions exclusively for the RSA Conferences. CDM is a proud member of the Cyber Defense Media Group. Learn more about us at https://www.cyberdefensemagazine.com and visit https://www.cyberdefensetv.com and https://www.cyberdefenseradio.com to see and hear some of the most informative interviews of many of these winning company executives. Join a webinar at https://www.cyberdefensewebinars.com and realize that infosec knowledge is power.
HiddenLayer Media Inquiries:
Maia Gryskiewicz
SutherlandGold for HiddenLayer
hiddenlayer@sutherlandgold.com
CDM Media Inquiries:
Contact: Irene Noser, Marketing Executive
Email: marketing@cyberdefensemagazine.com
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Website: www.cyberdefensemagazine.com
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