Operator-gated active defense for AI-enabled mission systems.

Runtime security
for AI agents.

Phalanx provides operator-gated runtime defense for AI-enabled mission systems. It detects adversarial manipulation, monitors tool use, supports defensive deception in authorized environments, routes containment options for human approval, and records every event through replayable evidence trails. Autonomous detection. Operator-gated response.

Layered Runtime Security Architecture

In an adversarial or low-trust environment, relying on a single monolithic firewall is a critical limitation. Phalanx distributes the defensive workload across specialized, context-aware agents. They do not operate in silos; they pass a shared state, handing off incidents from the edge all the way to controlled deception environments.

5Pillars
< 100msIntercept Time
PolicyGated Response

The Five Pillars

Distinct agents. Unified control plane.
PILLAR I

Cerberus

Access & Ingestion Control

Replaces vulnerable upload endpoints with a conversational AI gatekeeper. Cerberus analyzes incoming files, determines their intent, and strictly routes data to isolated Knowledge Bases (Legal, HR, Tech). It enforces human-in-the-loop confirmation before any state-changing ingestion occurs.

Frictionless UX Semantic Routing
PILLAR II

Talos

Prompt & Input Risk Gateway

Screens user inputs, retrieved content, files, and tool-bound context for prompt injection, sensitive data exposure, policy violations, and unsafe instructions. It performs automated PII masking, stripping SSNs and credentials before they ever reach the core reasoning engine.

PII Masking OWASP Scanning Injection Detection
PILLAR III

Argus

Runtime Observability

Monitors agent activity, tool use, policy events, model routing, and anomalous behavior across governed AI workflows. Argus utilizes Isolation Forest machine learning models to detect behavioral anomalies (e.g., unusual delegation patterns or resource spiking) and predictive failures that human operators miss.

ML Anomaly Detection Mesh Telemetry
RESPONSE ORCHESTRATION
PILLAR IV

Ares

Incident Response Orchestration

Coordinates response workflows, prepares containment options, routes high-risk actions for operator approval, and preserves incident evidence for after-action review. When Phalanx detects an anomaly, Ares correlates the event to MITRE ATT&CK, prepares a containment workflow, and routes response actions through the configured approval policy before execution.

SOAR Playbooks MITRE Mapping
[!] INCIDENT: CREDENTIAL_THEFT (TA0006)
> Correlating IP: 185.12.x.x
> Threat Intel: AbuseIPDB (Score: 92)
> Status: High-risk activity confirmed
> Action: Approval-gated credential revocation queued
> Result: Containment workflow completed
PILLAR V

Aegis

Defensive Deception & Containment

Effective defense requires visibility, containment, and controlled deception. Aegis creates controlled decoy routes and containment paths to study adversarial behavior inside authorized environments without exposing production systems. Aegis can route suspicious activity into a sandboxed deception environment to capture behavioral indicators and propagate updated controls across the fleet.

Deception Routing Honeypots

Dynamic Event Routing

The PhalanxOrchestrator controls the flow of a shared ThreatContext across the mesh.

1. Edge Detection

Cerberus flags a highly obfuscated PDF upload as suspicious and routes it to the Orchestrator.

Source: Cerberus
Event: file_ingestion
Severity: HIGH

2. Cognitive Scan

Talos receives the payload, extracts a malicious macro, updates the ThreatContext, and returns a policy violation.

Target: Talos
Result: policy_violation
Action: Payload Blocked

3. SecOps Handoff & Posture Shift

Orchestrator shifts global posture to ELEVATED. Ares correlates the macro signature with global feeds and queues an approval-gated containment workflow.

Target: Ares & Argus
Posture: ELEVATED
Action: pb_isolate_host
Security x Compliance

Runtime Defense for Governed AI

Phalanx provides the active, operator-gated security required to operate AI in an adversarial or low-trust environment. While Assurance handles the pre-flight crash test and Proof maintains the immutable ledger, Phalanx provides continuous runtime monitoring and response coordination.

Phalanx x Assurance

Aegis captures behavioral indicators from controlled deception environments and feeds validated patterns into the Assurance test suite.

Phalanx x Auditor

When Ares detects a critical threat, it signals Auditor to revoke the compromised agent's Assurance Clearance, enforcing an automated revocation.

Phalanx x Proof

Every SOAR playbook executed by Ares is hashed into the Astraea Merkle Tree, creating an immutable regulatory audit trail.

Return to TRiSM Overview