# Australian Agencies Extend Zero Trust to AI Agents

An October 2026 Fortinet opinion article by Cornelius Mare, Chief Information Security Officer for Australia, describes how agentic AI expands zero-trust security considerations to non-human identities and agents operating across multiple systems. For Australian government agencies and contractors, the article points to practical planning priorities: inventorying AI agents, assigning task-scoped credentials, continuously monitoring activity, retaining human oversight, and establishing accountability. It identifies no solicitation, contract value, or procurement contact.

- Procurement and security teams can use these priorities when evaluating AI-enabled systems and defining security expectations for suppliers; the article does not establish a government mandate.
- Contractors serving Australian government clients may benefit from documenting how their systems identify agents, restrict permissions to specific tasks, and log actions under each agent’s identity.
- The article identifies the Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre as a relevant government entity, but provides no specific procurement opportunity or implementation deadline.

**Jurisdictions:** international
**Industries:** Information Technology
**Topics:** Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence
**Published:** October 20, 2026

### Government Entities
- Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASD’s ACSC)
- Australian Government

### Key Quotes
> For organisations putting zero trust into practice, the immediate priorities are to inventory the AI agents already operating across their environments, give each agent task-scoped credentials rather than inheriting a user’s broader permissions, and log agent actions under the agent’s own identity.
> — Cornelius Mare, Chief Information Security Officer, Australia, Fortinet

### Sources
- [AI agents are rewriting the rules of zero trust | iTWire](https://itwire.com/guest-articles/guest-opinion/ai-agents-are-rewriting-the-rules-of-zero-trust) - iTWire