Protecting a government website means defending two different things: residents’ and staff members’ accounts at the public sign-in, and agency systems that an AI agent can access using delegated permissions. Use phishing-resistant authentication and secure identity processes for people; give agents separate identities, narrow permissions, and human oversight. Neither set of controls alone guarantees protection.
Separate public account attacks from risks created by agency AI agents
An automated attack on a resident’s account and an AI agent acting inside an agency system are related security problems, but they are not the same threat. A public login needs defenses against stolen or guessed credentials, abuse of enrollment and recovery, and misuse of identity tokens. An agent needs controls over what identity it uses, which systems it can reach, and what actions it may take.
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Available guidance describes both kinds of risk, but does not establish that AI agents are uniquely responsible for any particular compromise of a government website. Treat “AI-agent account attacks” as a reason to address both account defenses and delegated access—not as evidence that a specific attack trend has been measured.
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|---|---|---|
| Resident or staff account | Credentials are phished, guessed, reused, or abused during enrollment or recovery; identity tokens are stolen or misused. | Authentication strength, identity proofing and recovery, token protection, monitoring, and response. |
| AI agent accessing agency systems | An agent receives excessive access, uses a person’s credentials, or follows malicious instructions in content or tools. | Agent identity, scoped authorization, tool and data access, human review, logging, and assessment. |
Harden sign-in, enrollment, and account recovery
Prefer phishing-resistant authentication
For services that support it, plan to use FIDO/WebAuthn authentication. CISA identifies it as a phishing-resistant direction: authentication can be blocked when a user is tricked into visiting a fake site. A FIDO2/WebAuthn hardware security key is one way a user or staff member may authenticate, but it works only where the service supports the method. It does not secure enrollment, recovery, tokens, or agent permissions by itself.
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If phishing-resistant MFA is not yet available, CISA identifies number matching as a fallback. MFA methods are not interchangeable: they differ in resistance to phishing and push-bombing. Choose based on service support, accessibility and usability, recovery arrangements, and administrative manageability; do not assume that a code delivered by text, email, or an app offers the same protection as phishing-resistant authentication.
Protect the whole identity journey
Strong login controls cannot make up for weak identity proofing, enrollment, or recovery. NIST Special Publication 800-63-4, finalized in July 2025, covers identity proofing, enrollment, authenticators, authentication protocols, and federation for people interacting with government information systems. It also includes measures addressing automated attacks against enrollment processes. Use it as the digital-identity baseline when designing or reviewing those paths.
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Review recovery as carefully as sign-in: determine how a legitimate user regains access, what evidence is required, and whether the same protections apply to all supported routes. Test enrollment, login, and recovery separately, including accessibility needs. The cited guidance does not provide a universal operational playbook for every public-site bot or recovery-abuse scenario, so traffic handling and recovery controls need service-specific threat modeling and validation.
Protect tokens, federation, and API access
Account security does not end after a successful password or MFA check. Sessions, tokens, and assertions can grant continuing access, including through single sign-on (SSO), federation, and APIs. Treat theft or misuse of those credentials as part of the account-security problem rather than focusing only on passwords.
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- PRIMARY & SPARE KEYS: Just like having a spare house key, we recommend buying two YubiKeys - one for daily use and one as a spare. That way you’ll never get locked out of your accounts
NISTIR 8587, finalized September 15, 2026, addresses token and assertion protection for agencies and cloud service providers. Its coverage includes key management, token verification, lifecycle controls, SSO, federation, and API access. Apply the relevant controls across the full token lifecycle, and include integrations and machine-to-machine access in reviews—not just the visible sign-in page.
Give every AI agent its own identity and limited authority
Do not share a staff member’s credentials
An agent should not sign in as a staff member using that person’s password, session, or other personal credential. Use a distinct, accountable identity for the agent and make any delegation explicit. NIST authors Bill Fisher and Ryan Galluzzo wrote in NIST Cybersecurity Insights on August 27, 2026: “Credential sharing is a bad idea in all contexts.” Separate identities help make actions attributable; they are not, by themselves, a complete security control.
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Scope permissions to the task
Authorize only the actions and data an agent needs for its assigned work. Broad local-user permissions can allow an agent to impersonate a person or reach systems beyond the task. Bind delegated rights to an accountable person or service, limit tool and data access, and review whether access expires or can be revoked when the work ends.
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When assessing an agent deployment, ask whether it has a distinct identity, task-scoped authorization, accountable delegation, limited tools and data, useful audit records, and an independent check or human review for high-impact actions. NIST notes that standards and deployment practices are still evolving; its National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) project is developing practical resources.
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- WORKS WITH 1000+ ACCOUNTS: Compatible with popular accounts like Google, Microsoft, and Apple. A single YubiKey 5 secures 100+ of your favorite accounts, including email, password managers, and more.
- FAST & CONVENIENT LOGIN: Plug in your YubiKey 5 via USB and tap it to authenticate. No batteries, no internet connection, and no extra fees required.
- MOST SECURE PASSKEY: Supports FIDO2/WebAuthn, FIDO U2F, Yubico OTP, OATH-TOTP/HOTP, Smart card (PIV), and OpenPGP. That means it’s versatile, working almost anywhere you need it.
- BUILT TO LAST: Made from tough, waterproof, and crush-resistant materials. Manufactured in Sweden and programmed in the USA with the highest security standards.
Assume an agent can be redirected by untrusted content
Content an agent reads is not automatically safe to follow. Malicious instructions can be embedded in a web page, document, or email and can attempt to redirect the agent through direct or indirect prompt injection. OWASP also identifies risks including privilege escalation through tools, data exfiltration, excessive autonomy, and sensitive data exposure.
The potential impact depends on what the agent can do. Limit autonomy and permissions, threat-model the workflow and its external inputs, monitor agent activity, and require human approval or an independent check before consequential actions. Assess the system regularly rather than relying on a model-level safeguard to prevent every unsafe instruction or action.
What agent-hijacking evaluations do—and do not—show
In 2025, NIST’s Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) evaluated agent hijacking in simulated AgentDojo environments, not on production government websites. In one held-out Workspace evaluation, the strongest baseline attack succeeded 11% of the time, while the strongest novel red-team attack succeeded 81% of the time. Across five selected injection tasks, average attack success was 57% on one attempt and 80% after 25 attempts.
These are scenario-specific experimental results, not estimates of how often government accounts are attacked or compromised. CAISI reports that results vary by task and impact; a low success rate for a severe outcome can still justify mitigation. The cited sources do not provide a measured prevalence statistic for AI-agent attacks against government websites specifically.
Deployment checklist: test each path separately
- Public identity: Review proofing, enrollment, authentication, and recovery against NIST SP 800-63-4, including exposure to automated enrollment attacks.
- Authentication: Use FIDO/WebAuthn where supported; where it is not yet available, consider CISA’s number-matching fallback and account for the differences among MFA methods.
- Tokens and integrations: Review token issuance, verification, lifecycle, key management, SSO, federation, and API access against NISTIR 8587 where applicable.
- Agent identity: Give each agent a distinct identity; do not pass through a staff member’s credentials.
- Agent authority: Limit permissions, tools, and data to the task; define accountable delegation and a way to revoke access.
- Consequential work: Add human approval or an independent check before high-impact actions, and keep useful records for review.
- External inputs: Treat web pages, documents, email, and tool outputs as potentially hostile; test workflows for prompt injection and unsafe tool use.
- Operations: Monitor account and agent activity, threat-model each service and workflow, and conduct regular security assessments.
- Validation: Test enrollment, recovery, sign-in, APIs, and agent workflows as separate paths, including accessibility and failure cases.
CISA’s joint agentic AI guidance, announced May 1, 2026, supports limiting autonomy, strong identity management, layered defense, oversight, threat modeling, monitoring, and regular assessment. No single measure—including MFA, a security key, a bot challenge, or a model safeguard—guarantees protection. Choose controls for the service’s risk and validate that they work across the paths users and agents can actually take.
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