Albert Einstein said: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” That seems to apply to cybersecurity as much as any other area of technology. At a recent security and risk management event, Gartner outlined how the rapid growth of AI applications will introduce new and more complex security challenges for organisations in the years ahead.
► ‘AI security platforms’ will be used to provide unified approach to protecting third-party AI services and AI apps
► Poorly structured data will cause future issues
► Identity visibility and intelligence capabilities to become more significant
According to the analyst, within two years, 50% of all enterprise cybersecurity responses will focus on incidents involving custom-built AI-driven applications. A key issue is speed: many AI apps are deployed before they are fully tested. Their complexity makes them harder to secure, and more organisations still lack mature processes for handling AI-related security incidents. As a result, investigations and remediation can take longer and require more effort.
Gartner recommends IT leaders get involved in custom-built AI apps projects early to ensure adequate security controls are in place. This also creates opportunities for Partners to support planning, testing and the implementation of effective protection strategies.
Interestingly, AI itself will provide at least part of the answer, with Gartner expecting more than 50% of organisations to use ‘AI security platforms’ to safeguard third-party services and apps by 2028. These platforms are designed to provide a unified approach to managing AI-related risks, including enforcing usage policies, monitoring AI activity and applying consistent security guardrails.
Gartner also warned about the growing impact of ‘data debt’. It said that in most organisations, data is not AI-ready and often poorly structured and inadequately secured, making AI adoption problematic. By 2030, it predicts that a whopping 33% of IT work will be spent fixing data issues in order to secure AI environments.
In the shorter term, Gartner expects manual AI compliance processes to increase the risk of regulatory fines. It also predicts that by 2027, around 30% of organisations will require comprehensive sovereignty over their cloud security controls in response to ongoing geopolitical instability.
It also predicts that by 2028, 70% of enterprises will use identity visibility and intelligence capabilities to shrink the attack surface and reduce the risks of credentials being compromised. This will drive increased demand for ‘unified, AI-powered identity visibility and intelligence platforms.’
The TD SYNNEX Cybersecurity Practice team is always available to discuss the current and future cybersecurity needs of your customers and the business opportunities available.
