AI Security for Developers and Practitioners - 1/2 day

This condensed hands-on session provides developers and technical leaders with a practical foundation in AI system security — from understanding the unique attack surfaces of LLMs and agents to applying effective guardrails, validation, and monitoring.
Participants explore key security principles across LLM pipelines, agent architectures, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) environments.
Through five focused labs, attendees learn how to detect vulnerabilities, prevent data leakage, and implement safe execution patterns for AI-driven workflows.

By the end of the session, participants will have a working understanding of common AI attack vectors, defensive design patterns, and secure deployment practices for agents and MCP-based systems.

The workshop combines rapid conceptual overviews with practical, short labs:
1.Lab 1 – Understanding AI Threat Surfaces
Explore how AI systems differ from traditional apps: prompt injection, training data poisoning, model exfiltration, and output manipulation.
2.Lab 2 – Secure Prompt and Context Handling
Implement techniques for input sanitization, instruction filtering, and chain-of-thought isolation in LLM and agent pipelines.
3.Lab 3 – Guardrails and Policy Enforcement
Apply open-source guardrail frameworks (e.g., Guardrails.ai or LlamaGuard) to validate responses and prevent unsafe completions.
4.Lab 4 – Securing Agent Tool Use
Configure tools and connectors with least-privilege access and safe error handling. Examine how to restrict and audit agent actions.
5.Lab 5 – Securing MCP Interactions
Learn how to authenticate, authorize, and scope MCP server calls. Practice securing endpoints and preventing untrusted tool injection.

Outcome:
Participants leave with an actionable framework for assessing AI application risk, implementing safeguards, and integrating secure development practices into their LLM and agent workflows.

About Brent Laster

Hi, I'm Brent Laster - a global trainer and book author, experienced corporate technology developer and leader, and founder and president of Tech Skills Transformations LLC. I've been working with and presenting at NFJS events for many years now and it is always exciting and interesting.

Through my decades in programming and management,I've always tried to make time to learn and develop both technical and leadership skills and share them with others Regardless of the topic or technology, my belief is that there is no substitute for the excitement and sense of potential that come from providing others with the knowledge they need to help them accomplish their goals.

In my spare time, I hang out with my wife Anne-Marie, 4 children and 2 small dogs in Cary, North Carolina where I design and conduct trainings and write books. You can find me on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/brentlaster), Twitter (@brentclaster) or through my company's website at www.getskillsnow.com.

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