Agentic AI blows up the attack surface as security moves into the infrastructure layer
The enterprise attack surface is expanding rapidly as agentic AI brings a constantly shifting cloud infrastructure into play.
That pace is pushing security decisions down toward the virtualization layer, where policy can be enforced without slowing traffic. Perimeter defenses alone no longer hold, and enterprises that delay a broader lateral security program risk falling behind increasingly automated attacks, according to Umesh Mahajan (pictured), vice president and general manager of the Application Networking and Security Division at Broadcom Inc.
“This is the time where you can’t put off security any longer,” Mahajan said. “‘Oh, I got a perimeter firewall. I’m good.’ No, no, no – not good. It can be bypassed. Now the security gurus or experts are saying, ‘No, you can’t take two years, three years. You have to deploy lateral security.'”
Mahajan spoke with theCUBE’s John Furrier at VMware Explore 2026, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed agentic AI’s effect on the enterprise attack surface, zero-trust enforcement and API protection for Kubernetes workloads. (* Disclosure below.)
