As organizations get a handle on how AI can benefit their specific offerings, and while they try to ascertain the risks inherent in AI adoption, many forward-thinking companies have already set up dedicated AI stakeholders within their organization to ensure they are well-prepared for this revolution.
Chief information security officers are the heart of this committee, and those ultimately responsible for implementing its recommendations.
Understanding its priorities, tasks, and potential challenges is pivotal for CISOs who want to be business enablers instead of obstructors.
Introducing: The AI Committee An AI committee, sometimes referred to as the AI governance committee, is a group within an enterprise, responsible for overseeing the safety, legal, and security implications of that organization's AI use.
Security leadership: Specialists in data privacy, cybersecurity, and information security who ensure that AI systems adhere to privacy regulations and security best practices.
Data scientists and AI engineers: Professionals with expertise in data science, machine learning, and AI technologies who are responsible for developing and implementing AI systems.
How the CISO Can Become the AI Committee Champion Here are three fundamentals CISOs can use as a guide to being the pivotal asset in the AI committee and ensuring its success.
The age-old saying in security applies to AI as well - you can't protect what you don't know.
This inventory will also give you insight into usage patterns to understand what sort of AI use is organically popular for the employees, so you focus your future security efforts where they are needed most.
As the CISO, remember that you hold the most valuable information on the committee - GenAI usage data from across the organization, aka ROI. Armed with data, take the lead in setting up smart, secure, and realistic GenAI policies across the org.
CISOs always struggle with balancing productivity and security.
With gradual adoption, CISOs can embrace parallel security controls and measure their success.
Assuming a successful phased rollout, CISOs can keep one foot on the gas and their hands on the steering wheel, rather than reaching for the hand brake.
Guardrails are a common security practice that enables security to engage controls for secure development, without slowing things down.
To protect against such harmful threats, CISOs should set up content-based guardrails to define and then alert on prompts that are risky or malicious, or that violate compliance standards.
Cutting-edge, AI-focused security solutions may also allow customers to set up and define their own unique parameters of safe prompts, and alert to and prevent prompts that fall outside of these guardrails.
Remember that while the legal department is usually responsible for crafting the organization's safety and security policies, at the end of the day, the responsibility of enforcement falls on the CISO's shoulders.
CISOs and security practitioners are now considered part of the organizational executive leadership, and have both the responsibility and the opportunity to drive business success - not just security.
Leveraging the AI committee to lead, not follow, is just another way CISOs can effectively change security reality for the better, ensuring their positive impact on the business.
Armed with data, CISOs have a unique opportunity to lead employees, including IT, developers, and executives, on the best strategy to gain the benefits of GenAI, securely.
This Cyber News was published on www.darkreading.com. Publication date: Wed, 15 May 2024 14:00:18 +0000