Facing Shadow AI: A CISO's Race against Time to Guard $8.8 Trillion Asset

In the world of omnipresent technology, security has become the night watch. It stands bravely on the frontlines, averting menacing threats that can potentially annihilate a company’s existence. This is a tale of one such hero, Sam Evans, the CISO at Clearwater Analytics, who undertook the daunting task of protecting a mammoth $8.8 trillion assets under management with an unlikely accomplice — artificial intelligence. The arduous journey began in October 2023, where Evans had to address the discordant fears of potential data exposition due to internal and external cyber threats. The company needed a breakthrough. Evans unearthed a path using AI to revolutionise their defensive mechanisms. Integrating AI allowed their security analysts to shift from the humdrum of relentless pursuit to strategizing decisions based on AI-driven insights. Simultaneously, it also expanded the traditional response mechanisms’ capacity to distinguish the potent threats with higher accuracy. But with every perk comes a peril. The accelerated sophistication of phishing attempts, emergence of deep fakes, and misuse of customer data by rogue AI engines posited new challenges. This is the Shadow AI risk, a menacing dilemma where the once-beneficial AI becomes potentially destructive. Here’s how Evans charted out his strategy to tackle this — rather than raising an alarm, he came forth with a solution. The focus was galvanized towards creating a robust system that could secure their intellectual property and customer data, making Clearwater Analytics nearly impenetrable. It is a demonstration of how AI can be used not just as an assistant but a bodyguard. The tale of Sam Evans is a testament to the fact that when leveraged effectively, AI can become the cornerstone of cybersecurity, proving that with technology, even the sky isn’t the limit.