ARGUSBLACKWOOD TECHNOLOGIES INC.

MACHINE AUTHORITY SECURITY

Deploy autonomous AIwithout grantinguncontrolled authority.

ARGUS attacks production-bound AI agents to determine where they can exceed their intended authority, maps the resulting consequence, helps implement the highest-value controls, retests the system, and produces evidence for enterprise deployment.

Request a Launch ReviewWatch 90-second demo →
  • 10 business days
  • One autonomous system
  • Fixed scope
  • Enterprise-ready evidence
Illustrative authority graph: an employee delegates to a procurement agent, which authenticates as a service identity, invokes a payment API, and can authorize a $100,000 transaction — exceeding its intended authority boundary. Illustrative scenario, not a customer incident.
AUTHORITY PATH / 04EVALUATION / CONTROLLED
DELEGATESAUTHENTICATESINVOKESCAN AUTHORIZEHUMANEMPLOYEEAGENTPROCUREMENT AGENTCREDENTIALSERVICE IDENTITYTOOLPAYMENT APIBUSINESS CONSEQUENCE$100,000 TRANSACTIONAUTHORITY BOUNDARY EXCEEDED
Illustrative scenario · not a customer incident

AI no longer just produces information.It takes actions.

Traditional security models were built primarily around humans operating software. Autonomous agents reason, plan, use credentials, invoke tools, consume untrusted information, and perform further actions without a human approving every step.

TRADITIONAL SOFTWARE

  1. 01Input
  2. 02Code
  3. 03Action

AUTONOMOUS SYSTEM

  1. 01Input
  2. 02Reasoning
  3. 03Planning
  4. 04Memory
  5. 05Tool selection
  6. 06External information
  7. 07Action
  8. 08Further action

Authentication tells you what is acting.

It does not tell you what that actor should ultimately be allowed to cause.

THE CONTROL MODEL

Five properties every consequential autonomous system requires.

  1. 01

    IDENTITY

    What is acting?

  2. 02

    AUTHORITY

    What is it permitted to cause?

  3. 03

    OBSERVATION

    What is it actually doing?

  4. 04

    CONTAINMENT

    Can unsafe behavior be interrupted?

  5. 05

    RECOVERY

    Can the resulting state be reversed?

ARGUS is built around making machine authority explicit, bounded, observable, interruptible, and recoverable.

AVAILABLE NOW

ARGUS Launch Review

In ten business days, ARGUS determines whether one production or production-bound AI agent can exceed its intended authority, identifies consequential failure modes, implements or specifies the highest-value controls, retests the system, and produces an enterprise-ready security evidence package.

DELIVERY
10 business days
SCOPE
One production or production-bound autonomous system
ENGAGEMENT
Fixed scope

METHOD

  1. 01

    System Map

    Map models, prompts, memory, tools, APIs, identities, credentials, data sources, downstream systems, and approval boundaries.

  2. 02

    Authority Graph

    Trace Human → Agent → Credential → Tool → Application → Data → Business consequence.

  3. 03

    Adversarial Evaluation

    Test relevant failure modes in a controlled, authorized environment.

  4. 04

    Blast Radius

    Determine the maximum credible consequence if the agent is compromised or behaves incorrectly.

  5. 05

    Remediation

    Prioritize the small number of controls that materially reduce expected loss and deployment risk.

  6. 06

    Retest

    Demonstrate whether the implemented controls actually work.

  7. 07

    Evidence Package

    Produce material usable by security, engineering, enterprise customers, auditors, procurement, and insurers.

The deliverable is not a vulnerability PDF.

The deliverable is increased deployability.

Discuss a Launch Review →

CONTROLLED DEMONSTRATION

See an agent cross its authority boundary.

A simulated enterprise environment showing how ARGUS maps authority, traces a consequential execution path, applies a control, and verifies the result.

Procurement-Agent-07

SYS / 0072
STATUS
EVALUATED
ENVIRONMENT
PRODUCTION-BOUND
AUTHORITY PATHS
13
HIGH-RISK PATHS
2
FINDINGS
4
RETEST
PASSED
AUTHORITY PATH
  1. Procurement Agent
  2. Service Identity
  3. Payment API
  4. External Account
FINDINGCRITICAL

AUTH-004

Observed authority exceeded expected policy.

EXPECTED
transaction.amount <= 25,000
OBSERVED
100,000
RETEST
EXPECTED
DENY
OBSERVED
DENY
RESULT
✓ PASSED
  • 01:24
  • simulated enterprise environment
  • controlled evaluation

SECURITY IS EMPIRICAL

Evidence, not assertions.

ARGUS reports what was tested, under which assumptions, what happened, and what remains unknown. It does not claim absolute security.

AUTHORITY PATH

  1. Procurement Agent
  2. → Service Identity
  3. → Payment API
  4. → External Account

MAXIMUM CREDIBLE CONSEQUENCE

$250,000

FINDING

AUTH-004

Critical

Observed authority exceeded expected policy.

RETEST

CONTROL-004

Expected
DENY
Observed
DENY
Result
✓ PASSED

Successful security work should reduce the probability of an unauthorized consequence—not merely generate more alerts.

THE LARGER SYSTEM

Machine Authority Infrastructure

Cybersecurity is the initial application. The larger problem is machine authority: making autonomous authority explicit, bounded, attributable, observable, enforceable, interruptible, and recoverable.

ARGUS begins with offensive validation of one agent. Over time, repeated security work can become continuous testing, machine authority mapping, runtime control, and increasingly autonomous containment and recovery.

  1. 01UNDERSTAND
  2. 02TEST
  3. 03CONSTRAIN
  4. 04DEFEND
  5. 05RECOVER

ARGUS begins by securing one agent.

It is designed for a world where machine authority must eventually be controlled at scale.

Can we grant this agent real authority?

If an autonomous system is approaching production, gaining write access, handling sensitive information, or affecting an enterprise deployment, ARGUS can evaluate its authority boundary before that authority becomes a liability.

Is security currently delaying production deployment or revenue?