Operational Checklist: The Monday Morning Plan
You understand the frameworks. You know the threats. Now, what do you do?
This checklist condenses the OWASP AI Security Exchange guidelines into actionable steps for your security engineering team.
Phase 1: Governance & Discovery (Weeks 1-4)
- [ ] Establish AI Inventory: Run a discovery scan (network/CASB) to find all AI services in use.
- [ ] Define AI Acceptable Use Policy: Publish a clear policy: "Do not put customer PII into public ChatGPT."
- [ ] Classify Systems: Tag internal AI projects as Low, Medium, or High Risk (per EU AI Act).
- [ ] Form AI Risk Committee: Monthly meeting with Legal, Security, and Engineering to review new models.
Phase 2: Technical Controls (Weeks 5-12)
- [ ] Deploy Runtime Guardrails: Put an inspection layer (like GuardionAI) in front of all LLM APIs.
- [ ] Block Prompt Injection
- [ ] Detect PII in Inputs/Outputs
- [ ] Secure the Supply Chain:
- [ ] Scan all model weights (pickles) for malware.
- [ ] Pin versions of all external models and libraries.
- [ ] Implement RAG Access Control: Ensure your Vector DB enforces user permissions (ACLs) at query time.
Phase 3: Validation & Monitoring (Ongoing)
- [ ] Red Teaming: Schedule a quarterly automated red team assessment (using tools like Garak or PyRIT).
- [ ] Feedback Loop: Create a "Report AI Issue" button for users to flag hallucinations or bias.
- [ ] Continuous Auditing: Monitor logs for "drift" – signs that the model's safety behavior is degrading over time.
Final Thought
AI Security is not a destination; it's a discipline. The threats (like Agentic exploits) are evolving faster than the standards.
Start with the OWASP Foundation—it covers 80% of the risk. Then, layer on specialized defenses for your specific use cases.
Further Reading
- OWASP AI Security Exchange (Official Source)
- Navigating the Security Landscape of Agentic AI (Advanced Guide)
- AI Security Landscape (Tool Comparison)