AI Security Overview

The AI Security Center in SecureEdge provides an overview of Shadow AI activity and highlights the risks associated with high-risk AI tools in your network. The Barracuda SecureEdge AI Security feature offers visibility into AI tool usage across your network and helps manage AI-related risks. It addresses unregulated AI adoption, where users access AI applications without oversight (Shadow AI), by revealing usage data and providing controls to allow or block AI applications and categories.

Requirements and Limitations

• The AI Security Overview page does not support custom time filters. It displays usage data for a fixed time period only.

• You cannot edit AI Security rules directly through the Web Filter settings.

• The triage option in recommended actions appears only on the Overview page, not on the AI Tools Inventory page.

Open AI Security Overview

1. Go to Barracuda SecureEdge and log in with your existing Barracuda Cloud Control account.

2. The chosen Tenant/Workspace is displayed in the top menu bar.

3. From the drop-down menu, select the workspace you want to access AI Security for.

4. In the left menu, click the AI Security icon and select Overview.

5. The AI Security Overview window opens.

6. The Overview page displays risk and usage graphs, protection status cards, and recommended actions. Widgets are clickable and open the corresponding subpage.
   
   

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The Overview page consists of the following sections:

Risk & recommended actions

You can view AI services detected in your network, including:

• Allowed AI tools used for daily activity

• Newly detected AI services since the last review

• Blocked AI services that are no longer exposing your network to AI Security risks

High - AI tool risk

This provides a graphical view that reflects the highest risk posed by any AI tools used in your organization.

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Shadow AI

Shadow AI occurs when employees use artificial intelligence tools for work without the knowledge or approval of the organization’s IT or security teams. This can cause risks like data exposure, compliance breaches, and lack of IT governance. Shadow AI is used “in the shadows” of organizational policies and controls. It controls AI usage that bypasses oversight and reduces organizational visibility.

• To block all unreviewed AI tools, click Block unreviewed.

• Click on a Triage to view more details on the AI tools inventory page.
  
  

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  • The Recommended actions page opens and displays the following:

    • Shows how the mix of AI tools changes over time, including Approved, Blocked, and Unreviewed (“shadow”) AI.

    • It helps identify long-term patterns and sudden usage spikes, enabling users to distinguish between stable, well-managed AI adoption and rapid expansion of unapproved or unmanaged shadow AI tools.
      
      

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High risk AI

High‑risk AI refers to AI whose decisions or outputs have serious consequences, requiring robust governance, oversight, and controls. It blocks AI tools that increase the risk of data loss, compliance violations, or security breaches.

• To block all high-risk AI tools, including those already approved, click Block high risk AI.

• Click on Triage to view more details on the AI tools inventory subpage.
  
  

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  • The Recommended actions page opens:
    
    

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AI tools usage and AI tool risk

You can track AI tool usage over the past 30 days and view an overview of risky tools in the network categorized by High, Medium, and Low risk levels.

AI tools usage - A visual overview of AI tools used across the organization during the specified period, categorized as Approved AI, Blocked AI, or Unapproved AI to help identify adoption trends, governance coverage, and overall risk.

AI tools risk - The AI Tools Risk bar chart provides a visual summary of the risk levels associated with AI tools used across the organization during the selected time period (for example, the last 30 days). Risk categories in the chart are high, medium, and low. Recommended actions depend on the severity level of AI tool risk categories.

You can do the following:

• Select time period: Last day, Last week, or Last 30 days.

• Click the icon of three vertical dots to Manage AI tools.

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AI Tools Inventory

When you want to investigate further, review the AI Tool Inventory, which lists the specific AI services detected in your network. If you find AI tools that you haven’t identified before, use the AI Tool Inventory to change their status to Allowed or Blocked. These updates are then applied to the relevant policies, helping you reduce risk.

The AI Tools inventory displays the following:

• The AI Tools Inventory lists all known AI applications detected on your network during the selected time period, You can choose a time frame between Last Day, Last Week, and Last 30 days.

• The application's status Allowed or Blocked can be changed inline via drop-down menus or in bulk by using row-selection checkboxes.

• In the right-top corner of the window, click the icon of three dots to Manage AI Tools and you will be redirected to AI Tools Inventory page. You can filter, search, and sort the list.
  
  

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AI top tools

The AI Top Tools card highlights the most-used AI applications in your environment for the selected time period, and displays the following:

• Top AI applications by usage over the selected time period.
  
  

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Top AI users

You can view the Top AI Users to identify users who access multiple AI services. The Top AI Users widget lists users with the highest AI usage, and displays the following:

• Users generating the highest AI usage in the selected time period.

• Key metrics: requests/traffic, sessions, active days.
  
  

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AI User Risk

The AI User Risk view highlights users whose AI activity presents the highest overall risk to your organization during the selected time period. The risk level (Low, Medium, or High) helps you identify accounts that may require additional review, training, or controls.

If you discover high-risk AI tools in your network, review them and block them directly from the inventory to further reduce exposure. These changes are then reflected in your policies, helping you lower risk.

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AI Categories

In addition, AI Categories show what types of AI tools are being used and for what purposes. The AI Categories displays, for each category, the number of applications that are allowed, blocked, or unreviewed, and indicates whether the category is blocked. Note that AI Categories are automatically generated by SecureEdge.

• In the right-top corner of the window, click the icon of three dots to Manage AI Categories and you will be redirected to AI Categories page. You can filter, search, and sort the list.
  
  

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AI Risk Logs and Reports

You can reset or adjust the AI app's risk score if you disagree and save it. For more information, see AI Tools Inventory and AI Categories. After enforcing these changes, you can troubleshoot the results via Reports > Logs > AI Risk Log in the network. Use filters to group and review log contents. For more information, see SecureEdge Logs.

In addition, you can generate an AI Risk Overview report from Reports > Reports > AI Risk Overview. Schedule this report daily, weekly, or monthly and send it to an admin or manager to Monitor AI usage in the network and Shadow AI's impact on your security posture. For more information, see SecureEdge Reports.