Axios House: AI is a cybersecurity risk accelerant, experts say
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WASHINGTON — AI is speeding up the pace of digital attacks and the need for resilient systems, defense and tech leaders said at an Axios House D.C. event.
Why it matters: Public and private entities must quickly adapt new security protocols for emerging threats or they'll risk dangers like data theft, ransomware, or bad actor infiltration.
Axios' Colin Demarest moderated the July 14 roundtable discussion. The event was sponsored by Accenture.
5 big takeaways from the conversation:
- Traditional risk guidance prioritizes "visibility into the risk, and then the means to mitigate the risk," CrowdStrike chief privacy officer Drew Bagley said. But the adoption of AI has led to an increase in potential targets and reduction of visibility into the technology, he added.
- Leaders should treat AI like "a trusted insider … with variability," Domino Data Lab chief information security officer Chris Talevi said. Consider what the technology is authorized to do, its guardrails, and its potential for "chaos."
- Resiliency "starts at the code level," Sublime Security head of threat intelligence and research Alex Orleans said, but also warned that secure and high-quality code is "cyber vegetables. Nobody wants to eat it."
- Asking the right questions can help build an AI cyber strategy, said Halcyon senior director of government affairs and public policy Meredith Burkart. "Depending on what you're guarding, you're going to have a different answer … and you're going to be able to talk about your risks in a different way."
- Hesitating to adopt AI has its own stakes, said Robert Kolasky, Exiger senior vice president of critical infrastructure. "There's a backlash [against generative AI] right now that's going to create a friction on the system" and disrupt necessary implementation, he added.
Content from the sponsor's remarks:
In opening remarks, Accenture Federal Services managing director and cyber lead Amanda Satterwhite said that AI is "the most consequential technology we've seen in decades."
- "We now have our first official cyber arms race, where both the offense and the defense have the same tools and techniques at the same time, and it's a matter of who's going to deploy them fast."
