Artificial intelligence Remote work is changing professional work models in almost every industry. It has the power to dramatically reduce the time we spend on routine tasks and free us up to think more strategically in our daily work lives.
It is no different for IT and cybersecurity sector – in our ISACA survey of business and IT professionals in Europe, almost three-quarters (73%) of the companies we surveyed said their staff are using AI at work.
But the key problem with AIAs transformative as it is, we need to make sure we use it responsibly and securely. After all, LLMs are trained on data that is often sensitive, and we need appropriate safeguards on these programs so that hallucinations don’t affect the integrity of our work. Only 17% of the organizations we surveyed have a formal, comprehensive AI policy in place that outlines the company’s approach to these issues and provides best practices for its use, despite the fact that employees use AI at work.
Director of Global Strategy at ISACA.
AI is changing the threat landscape
At the same time, cybercriminals are also gaining access to AI and are using it to enhance their businesses and criminal capabilities, making their threats more compelling and effective than ever before. This not only poses a threat to individuals, but also a significant threat to businesses. Businesses are interconnected organizations with networks of suppliers and business relationships. When one business suffers a breach, every organization around the world is affected. network are in danger.
The recent CrowdStrike IT outage shows how vulnerable businesses are to even a minor IT outage or cyberattack. When one service provider in the digital supply chain is impacted, the entire chain can break down, causing large-scale outages: a true digital pandemic. A malicious update, the unfortunate result of a lack of foresight and expertise, has wreaked havoc across a number of critical industries, from aviation and healthcare to banking and broadcasting.
Sometimes these incidents are caused by unintentional errors when updating software, and sometimes by a cyberattack. But the irony is that cybersecurity companies are also part of the supply chain, and the same companies struggling to build cyber resilience can also become victims, affecting service continuity.
Cybersecurity professionals are well aware of this fact: When we asked our survey respondents whether generative AI could be exploited by malicious actors, 61% were extremely or very concerned about the possibility of this happening. data According to last year’s survey, sentiment has hardly improved.
Training and development are the key to long-term resilience
AI is used for two purposes: malicious actors use it to develop more sophisticated attacks, and cybersecurity professionals use it to keep up with evolving threats and better detect and respond to them. Employees know they need to keep up with cybercriminals, upskill themselves, and truly master AI, but when we asked respondents how familiar they were with AI, nearly three-quarters (74%) had little or no familiarity.
The CrowdStrike incident highlighted the need for a more robust and resilient digital infrastructure, and the rise of AI will only make cyber threats worse. It’s important that as an industry we invest in training and upskilling to avoid similar crises in the future, and advances in technologies like AI could be the key to working more efficiently. The right protocols need to be established well in advance to respond quickly when attacks and outages occur to minimise damage and disruption. But this isn’t possible without the people with the skills to establish bespoke security frameworks and ensure everyone involved is trained to follow them.
To protect themselves and their partners in the long term and to realize the benefits of AI, companies must have the skills to identify new threat models, risks, and controls. AI training in cybersecurity is absolutely necessary: 40% of companies currently provide no training to employees in technology roles. Additionally, 34% of respondents believe they will need to improve their AI knowledge in the next six months, and a total of 86% of respondents believe this training will be necessary in the next two years.
By taking an approach to AI that prioritizes training and overall workplace policies, businesses and employees can be confident that they are harnessing the potential of AI and keeping pace with cyber threats as they evolve in a safe and responsible manner, protecting both the business itself and all other businesses within their broader network.
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