Ankit Agarwal — WritingEssays, talks and case studies on Zero Trust, identity and AI-era security by Ankit Agarwal, VP – Enterprise Architect at Coforge and co-author of Securing Startups.https://yesfirst.ai/Your AI budget is a security controlhttps://yesfirst.ai/writing/ai-budget-is-a-control/https://yesfirst.ai/writing/ai-budget-is-a-control/Spend caps on AI services do more than protect the invoice. They are the cheapest early-warning system you can switch on.Tue, 06 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTAfter a merger, the first security project is a listhttps://yesfirst.ai/writing/merger-starts-with-a-list/https://yesfirst.ai/writing/merger-starts-with-a-list/Two companies become one on paper long before they become one in the asset register. Until the inventories match, nothing else you secure is complete.Tue, 06 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTA review gate is a service, not a checkpointhttps://yesfirst.ai/writing/review-gate-is-a-service/https://yesfirst.ai/writing/review-gate-is-a-service/If the architecture review takes longer than the workaround, people take the workaround. Design the gate around the person waiting at it.Tue, 06 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTWho reviewed this access request?https://yesfirst.ai/writing/who-reviewed-this/https://yesfirst.ai/writing/who-reviewed-this/Over-provisioned access rarely comes from bad actors. It comes from convenience moving faster than scrutiny, one handoff at a time.Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhere does your data go after you hit Enter?https://yesfirst.ai/writing/where-does-your-data-go/https://yesfirst.ai/writing/where-does-your-data-go/Most organisations evaluate AI on what the model can do. Very few evaluate what happens to the data after the prompt is submitted.Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT64 million records behind "123456"https://yesfirst.ai/writing/123456/https://yesfirst.ai/writing/123456/We spend millions on Zero Trust and AI threat detection, and somewhere in the same enterprise a vendor test account still has default credentials.Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe department of "no" has already losthttps://yesfirst.ai/writing/department-of-no/https://yesfirst.ai/writing/department-of-no/When security becomes the department of "no", people stop asking and start routing around it. That is the real failure mode.Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTWe named Zero Trust wronghttps://yesfirst.ai/writing/we-named-zero-trust-wrong/https://yesfirst.ai/writing/we-named-zero-trust-wrong/Zero Trust was never about trusting nothing. It was about making trust earn itself, every time.Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe perimeter now lives in your OAuth consent screenshttps://yesfirst.ai/writing/the-perimeter-moved-into-oauth/https://yesfirst.ai/writing/the-perimeter-moved-into-oauth/The Vercel disclosure is not a Vercel story. It is the cleanest public example yet of shadow AI walking in through an OAuth grant.Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTSecurity is optional, until it isn'thttps://yesfirst.ai/writing/security-is-not-optional/https://yesfirst.ai/writing/security-is-not-optional/The startups that get security right do not have bigger budgets. They made one decision earlier: a named, accountable person from day one.Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTEveryone reviews the identities they can seehttps://yesfirst.ai/writing/the-identities-you-cant-see/https://yesfirst.ai/writing/the-identities-you-cant-see/Human identities get audits, owners and expiry cycles. Machine identities get created, given broad permissions and forgotten.Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTSilence in a network is not safetyhttps://yesfirst.ai/writing/silence-is-not-safety/https://yesfirst.ai/writing/silence-is-not-safety/We built reporting cultures around counting what we find, and almost nothing around measuring what we cannot see.Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe gap between AI policy and AI agentshttps://yesfirst.ai/writing/unreviewed-ai-agents/https://yesfirst.ai/writing/unreviewed-ai-agents/Most organisations have an AI governance policy. Very few know how many AI agents are actually running in their environment.Sat, 09 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTZero Trust ends where your machine-identity inventory endshttps://yesfirst.ai/writing/machine-identity-blind-spot/https://yesfirst.ai/writing/machine-identity-blind-spot/Machine identities outnumber humans by as much as 6 to 1, and almost none have a named owner. That is a governance gap, not a technology gap.Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTIdentity is a business continuity problemhttps://yesfirst.ai/writing/identity-is-business-continuity/https://yesfirst.ai/writing/identity-is-business-continuity/Identity weaknesses show up in nearly 90% of breach investigations, and we are still in meetings debating firewall rules.Wed, 29 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTIPO security starts at seedhttps://yesfirst.ai/writing/ipo-security-starts-at-seed/https://yesfirst.ai/writing/ipo-security-starts-at-seed/Companies that struggle at IPO are not insecure. They are unprepared to prove they are secure.Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTFive security questions that come up in due diligencehttps://yesfirst.ai/writing/due-diligence-questions/https://yesfirst.ai/writing/due-diligence-questions/None of these need a big budget. All of them need intention, and they are easier to answer if you started early.Tue, 07 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT