AI guardrails assessment
A guardrails assessment tests whether the controls around your AI system do what you think: input screening, output filtering, content policies, access control and logging. HYDN attacks each layer to find gaps, then helps design a defence-in-depth setup where no single control failing leaves the system open.
The layers we test
- Defence in depth. A tailored, multi-layer approach with no single point of failure.
- Guardrails and access control. Domain-specific content policies and prompt detection, combined with access controls so that only authorised users get responses about the data they are allowed to see.
- Input screening. Prompts scanned for threats such as injection and jailbreak attempts.
- Output screening. Responses screened for policy violations, XSS payloads and harmful content before delivery.
- Reporting. Machine-readable logs, PII alerts and threat feeds that surface poisoning attempts, data exposure and abuse patterns as they happen.
How the assessment runs
We attack each layer on its own and in combination, using the HYDN AI Attack Engine and manual testing, and report which attacks got through, at which layer, and why. Where gaps exist, we recommend changes, and HYDN’s Defensive AI Solution can provide the controls themselves.
Frequently asked questions
We use our model provider's safety filters. Is that enough?
Provider filters address general harms. They do not know your data, your users' permissions or your business rules. Most organisations need domain-specific policies and access control on top.
Will guardrails slow our application down?
Every layer adds some latency. The aim is maximum coverage with minimal performance overhead, so we look at where each check sits and what it costs.
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