# Thoma Bravo’s Seth Boro Warns AI Agent Security Risks Will Persist

By Simon Yoon

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/technology/35255
Published: 2026-10-20T03:14:28.000Z
Updated: 2026-10-20T03:14:28.000Z
Section: Technology

> Coinbase wallets let AI agents spend and trade crypto, making controls on their actions relevant to users.

Thoma Bravo Managing Partner Seth Boro warned that security risks involving AI agents will persist as consumer use grows, raising questions for crypto users who allow software to spend and trade.

Boro made the remarks Oct. 19. He leads Thoma Bravo’s infrastructure software and cybersecurity strategy. For consumers using AI agents, “it’s definitely a time to tread more slowly,” Boro said. He expects agents that act in unintended ways to remain a concern as adoption expands.

That concern has a practical dimension in crypto. Coinbase introduced wallets for AI agents on Feb. 11 that support spending and trading. Users can set limits for individual transactions and sessions, and the design keeps private keys outside the agent’s prompt. Those controls define how the wallets operate; they do not establish how often an agent might encounter an attack.

An attacker can place instructions in material an agent reads, including an email, web page or code file. The aim is to redirect the agent from the task its user intended. Access to software tools raises the stakes because an agent may be able to take action after reading that material.

A controlled security competition described in March tested that kind of attack. Its 464 participants submitted about 272,000 attempts involving 13 AI models and 41 scenarios. Of those attempts, 8,648 met the competition’s criteria for success. The figures describe outcomes in a test setting, not the rate of breaches among people using AI agents.

Boro’s warning came four days after Thoma Bravo-backed Proofpoint, Inc. agreed to acquire Varonis Systems, Inc. for approximately $6.3 billion. The companies plan to bring together security tools covering data and AI access. The agreement was announced Oct. 15; it remains a proposed transaction.

Proofpoint and Varonis expect the acquisition to close in the first half of 2027, subject to approval by Varonis shareholders and regulatory approvals.