Dr. Patrick Appiah-Kubi is a Professor and Portfolio Director for Cloud Computing, Cybersecurity Technology, and Information Assurance at the University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC), USA. He earned his Ph.D. in Information Technology from Towson University and has over 20 years of experience in teaching, research, academic leadership, and industry. His expertise spans cloud computing, cybersecurity, information assurance, database systems, artificial intelligence, and distributed computing. Dr. Appiah-Kubi has led curriculum development, accreditation initiatives, and graduate programs while mentoring numerous master's and Ph.D. students. He has authored and co-authored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and conference publications, and actively contributes to the global research community through editorial, reviewing, and technical program committee roles. A Senior Member of IEEE and a member of ACM and PMI, he is committed to advancing innovative research and preparing future technology leaders.  

When Agents Guard Agents: Rethinking Trust Posture for Autonomous AI at Machine Speed     Enterprise security has reached a recursive moment: autonomous AI agents are simultaneously the fastest-growing attack surface and the only defenders fast enough to police it. Traditional zero trust, built for human logins, known devices, and business hours, breaks down when software actors chain tool calls, spawn sub-tasks, and escalate their own permissions in seconds. This talk introduces Autonomous Trust Posture Management (ATPM), a model in which trust is continuously computed, verified, and revoked by machine-speed controls rather than periodic human review. We confront the paradox at its core: who verifies the verifier when the guard is itself an agent? From there, we walk through architecture patterns spanning cloud and edge environments, identity for non-human actors, delegated and ephemeral credentials, and crypto-agility for the post-quantum transition. Attendees will leave with a practical maturity model for evolving from static zero trust to an autonomous trust posture.