From Frontier to Shadow AI: A Simmering Threat to Assurance and Security in Critical Infrastructure

Computer Science > Cryptography and Security [Submitted on 23 May 2026] From Frontier to Shadow AI: A Simmering Threat to Assurance and Security in Critical Infrastructure Mohan Baruwal Chhetri, Shahroz Tariq, Tooba Aamir, Marthie Grobler, Chandra Thapa, Ronal Singh Frontier AI systems, including large language models and emerging agentic AI tools, offer significant operational benefits but present unique challenges to critical infrastructure (CI) environments due to their non-deterministic and emergent properties. While formal adoption is inherently cautious and tightly controlled due to strict regulatory oversight, widespread accessibility has catalysed shadow AI: the unsanctioned use of frontier AI outside established organisational controls. In CI settings, shadow AI bypasses established assurance and oversight mechanisms, amplifying risks to data protection, decision reliability, and regulatory compliance, with potential consequences for essential service delivery. We present the first empirical study of shadow AI in CI environments, characterising it as a systemic socio-technical condition of assurance erosion. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with senior executives and functional leaders across 27 Australian CI organisations (Communications, Energy, and Water and Sewerage sectors), we analyse how shadow AI manifests in practice, how it interacts with existing technical and governance controls, and the resulting security, assurance, and compliance risks. We develop an empirically derived threat model identifying three primary mechanisms of security degradation: (i) boundary bypass, where data flows circumvent established perimeters; (ii) unassessed capability expansion, where embedded AI features introduce latent risks; and (iii) loss of observability via governance circumvention, undermining forensic auditability and least-privilege enforcement. Our findings demonstrate that shadow AI introduces unmanaged risks that fundamentally challenge existing security and compliance frameworks, necessitating tailored, pathway-aligned governance and control strategies. Comments: 21 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, paper under review Subjects: Cryptography and Security (cs.CR); Computers and Society (cs.CY) Cite as: arXiv:2606.00088 [cs.CR]   (or arXiv:2606.00088v1 [cs.CR] for this version)   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2606.00088 Focus to learn more Submission history From: Shahroz Tariq [view email] [v1] Sat, 23 May 2026 07:21:08 UTC (320 KB) Access Paper: HTML (experimental) view license Current browse context: cs.CR < prev   |   next > new | recent | 2026-06 Change to browse by: cs cs.CY References & Citations NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar Export BibTeX Citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Demos Related Papers About arXivLabs Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)