Webinar Description
Key Takeaways
- Focuses on prompt injection attacks targeting AI agents in enterprise environments
- Explains the distinction between direct and indirect prompt injection techniques
- Examines why traditional phishing defences fail to protect AI systems
- Features real-world incident case studies from 2025–2026
- Designed for IT professionals, CISOs and security teams responsible for AI deployments
Introduction
As organisations accelerate their adoption of AI agents across business operations, a distinct category of security vulnerability has emerged that existing defences were never designed to address. Prompt injection attacks exploit the way large language models interpret instructions, allowing adversaries to manipulate AI behaviour by embedding malicious commands within seemingly ordinary content. This webinar from KnowBe4 provides security professionals with a foundational understanding of prompt injection mechanics and practical guidance for protecting AI-enabled environments.
About This Event
Prompt Injection 101: What It Is and How to Stay Ahead is a 45-minute virtual webinar hosted by KnowBe4. The session takes an educational approach to a threat category that has gained significant attention as AI agents become more deeply integrated into enterprise workflows. Rather than focusing solely on theoretical risks, the webinar draws on documented incidents from 2025 and 2026 to illustrate how these attacks manifest in practice.
Understanding Prompt Injection Attack Vectors
The webinar distinguishes between two primary attack paths. Direct prompt injection occurs when an attacker interacts with an AI system and crafts inputs specifically designed to override the model’s intended behaviour or extract sensitive information. Indirect prompt injection presents a more subtle challenge—malicious instructions are hidden within external content that the AI agent processes during normal operations, such as documents, emails or web pages.
This indirect vector is particularly concerning because it does not require the attacker to have direct access to the AI system. An adversary can plant instructions in a document that an AI assistant later summarises, or embed commands in a webpage that an AI agent retrieves during research tasks. The AI follows these hidden instructions without recognising them as hostile, potentially exfiltrating data, taking unauthorised actions or compromising connected systems.
Why Traditional Security Controls Fall Short
A central theme of the session addresses a common misconception: that existing phishing defences and security awareness training will naturally extend to AI agents. The webinar argues that this assumption creates dangerous gaps. Human employees can be trained to recognise suspicious requests, verify sender identities and question unusual instructions. AI agents, by contrast, process content programmatically and lack the contextual judgement that helps humans identify social engineering attempts.
Traditional email filters and endpoint protection tools were designed around human threat models. They scan for known malware signatures, suspicious links and sender reputation—none of which reliably detect prompt injection payloads embedded in otherwise legitimate content. Organisations deploying AI agents must therefore develop new control frameworks that account for how these systems interpret and act upon information.
Rethinking AI Agents as Organisational Participants
The webinar encourages security teams to conceptualise AI agents not merely as software tools but as new colleagues with access privileges, decision-making capabilities and potential attack surfaces. This framing has practical implications for access control, monitoring and incident response. Just as organisations define acceptable use policies and access boundaries for human employees, similar governance structures become necessary for AI agents operating within enterprise environments.
Who Should Attend
The session is designed for IT professionals, Chief Information Security Officers, security administrators and threat intelligence teams. It holds particular relevance for organisations that have deployed or are planning to deploy AI agents in operational roles, especially those handling sensitive data or interacting with external content sources. Security leaders evaluating their organisation’s readiness for AI-related threats will find the foundational concepts and mitigation strategies directly applicable to policy development and risk assessment.
Conclusion
Prompt injection represents a fundamental shift in how adversaries can compromise organisational systems. As AI agents assume greater responsibility within enterprise operations, understanding these attack techniques becomes essential for security professionals tasked with protecting increasingly autonomous digital environments.