AI in Cybersecurity: From Skepticism to Bulletproof in 90 Days - CISO's Strategy to Safeguard Trillions

The battlefield of cybersecurity has a new frontline warrior - Artificial Intelligence. Enter Sam Evans, the astute CISO of Clearwater Analytics, grappling with the formidable task of protecting $8.8 Trillion in assets. Realizing AI’s potential potency, Evans promptly adopted it as core to his defensive strategies, setting a 90-day target to make his firm ‘bulletproof’. The challenge: how to safeguard customer data potentially vulnerable to the rapidly evolving threat of ‘shadow AI’.

AI was integrated directly into the firm’s security playbook, enabling analysts to shift from hunting threats to actively responding. Early detection and response products mustered probabilities of threat detection, which AI subsequently augmented. It is this aspect of AI—its ability to enrich and improve upon existing systems—that lies at the heart of its utility in cybersecurity.

However, acknowledging the potential of deepfakes and data misuse was pivotal. Evans identified and addressed the threat of shadow AI, where an employee unknowingly compromises customer data by feeding it into an external AI model. This tale of transformation serves as an exemplar to the corporate world on embracing AI as a cybersecurity ally rather than a threat.

On a lighter note, if you’re nervous about protecting your data, remember hackers experience their own anxieties. Why don’t they enjoy nature? Because they cannot resist cracking the ‘seeds’.