Google Cloud has entered a pivotal phase in AI security, unveiling a wealth of new features at its annual Google Cloud Security Summit. With the rapid growth of AI agents — autonomous models that perform enterprise tasks and adapt dynamically — identity and security controls are under the microscope. Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is now placing AI-first security at the core of its platform, intended to help enterprises navigate the evolving risks and complexities of agent-driven environments.
Agentic IAM: Security for AI Agents
At the heart of these updates is the forthcoming Agentic IAM (Identity and Access Management) service. Unlike traditional IAM tools, Agentic IAM is purpose-built for AI models acting as agents: it auto-provisions distinct identities to these non-human actors across all development runtimes.
This isn’t just an architectural tweak; it marks a paradigm shift. The system supports a broad spectrum of credentials and authorization policies and offers end-to-end observability, making it possible to track and manage every agent’s actions. With Cisco predicting that widespread AI agent deployment could strain networks with “80 billion” user-equivalent traffic loads, this type of granular identity control is no longer theoretical but necessary. The move parallels similar efforts by security vendors like CrowdStrike, who are also layering advanced identity protections atop their platforms.
Model Context Protocol Comes to GCP
Security for AI agents also means controlling how models interact with data and tools. Google Cloud’s Security Command Center (SCC) is set to gain support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an emerging open standard introduced by Anthropic to standardize LLM integration with external tools and data sources.
While full implementation details are still under wraps, Oracle’s adoption of MCP points the way: its AI assistant and LLMs can now access databases directly, with networking tools in place to segment and monitor MCP traffic. The implication for Google Cloud customers is clear: secure, auditable data access for AI, coupled with powerful new ways to monitor, filter, and separate agent activity across networks.
Evolving Security Command Center
Google’s Security Command Center is getting smarter, introducing AI-specific controls for automated compliance. The new Compliance Manager tool uses built-in AI baselines to automate policy application, reporting, and continuous monitoring. When enabled, it ensures that AI endpoints remain protected behind private connectivity, removing the need for complex custom firewall rules. Any breach of this private boundary is flagged and logged as a compliance issue, helping organizations avoid accidental data exposures.
Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) is now integrated directly inside the BigQuery console, a user experience improvement that allows security teams to detect misconfigurations (like a public dataset) alongside analytic workflows. This shift-left approach means engineers can catch and remediate issues before they propagate, mirroring the move seen in Azure’s Synapse Analytics.
Automated Discovery and Threat Mitigation
Perhaps most significant is GCP’s move to automate the discovery of AI agents and MCP servers. The Security Command Center preview will soon surface vulnerabilities, risky agent interactions, and agent-specific dangers such as tool poisoning and prompt injection, offering defenders unprecedented visibility. These capabilities enhance incident response and support what Google calls the Agentic SOC; a vision for a next-gen security operations center where AI agents triage threats and orchestrate protection at scale, taking on the most repetitive, most time-consuming tasks, leaving teams to focus on the more complex threats.
Additional Enhancements Across the Stack
Other notable features in this GCP security push include:
- Native support for tagging and securing high-performance computing and AI workloads via Cloud NGFW.
- Expanded Cloud Armor to simplify DDoS and threat protection across cloud projects.
- Upgrades to Sensitive Data Protection tools, covering AI-generated assets and extending monitoring to images and unstructured content.
- Google Unified Security, a converged AI-driven security suite, has introduced new dashboards and AI-powered labs for rapid experimentation and response.
Looking Ahead: Cautious Optimism
While these updates reflect a robust and forward-thinking strategy, a measured approach to new tech adoption is probably the smartest path. Theoretically, it all sounds great, but the real test will be how they perform in the real world and what kind of value they can actually deliver. The real test will be how agentic IAM and AI-first controls perform under pressure.
Google Cloud’s AI-driven security advancements herald a new era for enterprises tying their fortunes to agentic AI. With platforms like Agentic IAM and SCC taking center stage, organizations now have the tools to deploy, monitor, and protect powerful AI agents, while staying compliant and proactive in a rapidly shifting threat landscape. Whether these measures deliver consistently in practice will be the next chapter in the evolution of AI security.
