Ex-Cisco Researchers Launch AI Agent Security Startup

Former Cisco AI security researchers Barak Sternberg and Nevo Poran have launched Tenet Security, a platform designed to stop rogue AI agent behavior before it reaches live systems. Its core Agent-Side Simulation technology predicts an agent's next moves and intervenes if a path looks risky, addressing a gap traditional security tools miss entirely. The launch follows Tenet research into agentjacking, an attack that hides malicious instructions inside content agents read, redirecting their actions without triggering alarms. The company tested across 100-plus enterprise environments and found thousands of vulnerable organizations. Tenet raised $6 million in seed funding led by The Westly Group.