How to Spot and Stop Security Risks From Unmanaged AI Tools: Shadow AI, LLM Agents, Compliance Risks

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Mend
Sep 26, 2025
Mend

How to Spot and Stop Security Risks From Unmanaged AI Tools

Shadow AI is exploding in organizations—developers are using AI tools and models without approval, often embedding them into production systems. In this webinar, Mend.io EVP of Product Management Nir Stern explains the real risks behind unmanaged AI tools, why traditional AppSec can’t keep up, and eight practical steps to regain control.

🔑 What you’ll learn:

  • What Shadow AI is and where it hides in your org
  • The hidden risks: vulnerabilities, compliance, and data exposure
  • Why traditional AppSec tools fail against AI-driven apps
  • 8 steps to manage and secure Shadow AI
  • How Mend AI provides visibility, governance, and red teaming

⏱ Chapters:

00:00 – Welcome & agenda

01:22 – What is Shadow AI?

02:45 – Why Shadow AI is exploding

04:38 – Where Shadow AI shows up in production

06:01 – Why Shadow AI is risky (audit gap, hidden risks, unpredictability)

07:30 – Real-world examples: 10x more AI use than orgs realize

10:23 – Customer stats: models, LLMs, agents, and RAG adoption

12:20 – Common Shadow AI patterns (embedded models, agents, API calls, vector DBs)

16:44 – Why traditional AppSec fails against Shadow AI

17:12 – Compliance challenges: licenses, ToS, ethics, bias

21:03 – Specific attack vectors (prompt injection, jailbreak, backdoors, hallucinations, poisoning)

28:10 – 8 actions to mitigate Shadow AI risk

32:01 – Introducing Mend AI (capabilities & features)

35:57 – Demo: dashboards, policies, and red teaming

38:47 – Key takeaways

39:44 – Live Q&A: detection methods, governance, policies, trials

49:08 – Closing remarks

Key Takeaways:

  • Shadow AI is already in your codebase—visibility is step one
  • Traditional AppSec tools can’t detect or secure AI-driven risks
  • Build an AI-aware security strategy with inventory, policies, and red teaming
  • Governance + automation = safe adoption of AI at scale

AI tools are rapidly infiltrating software development and many are being adopted without formal approval or security oversight. Developers, engineers, and data scientists are integrating various AI components such as Models, Agents, MCP servers, and more into workflows at unprecedented speed - often without informing AppSec or compliance teams.
This decentralized adoption is efficient and can drive innovation, but it opens the door to hidden risks, blind spots, and a growing security debt, creating ideal conditions for breaches, data exposure, and compliance failures that could go undetected until it’s too late.
In this session, Mend.io EVP Product Management Nir Stern examines the security implications of Shadow AI and offers practical guidance for spotting and stopping the risks introduced by unapproved tools.
From identifying visibility gaps and reducing governance friction to actionable mitigation strategies, you’ll walk away with a sharper understanding of how to protect your development lifecycle from AI-driven threats.
For more information, visit www.mend.io, the Mend.io blog, and Mend.io on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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Mend.io, formerly known as Whitesource, has over a decade of experience helping global organizations build world-class AppSec programs that reduce risk and accelerate development - using tools built into the technologies that software and security teams already love. Our automated technology protects organizations from supply chain and malicious package attacks, vulnerabilities in open source and custom code, and open-source license risks. With a proven track record of successfully meeting complex and large-scale application security needs, Mend.io is the go-to technology for the world’s most demanding development and security teams. The company has more than 1,000 customers, including 25 percent of the Fortune 100, and manages Renovate, the open source automated dependency update project. For more information, visit www.mend.io, the Mend.io blog, and Mend.io on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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📜 Disclaimer:
This video is for educational purposes only. Mend.io is not responsible for any security decisions made based on this content.

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