Information security professionals and vendors need to master artificial intelligence (AI) to combat the threats that are already using it, said the annual RSA conference in San Francisco.
“Without good AI, zero trust has zero chance,” RSA CEO Rohit Ghai said at the opening of the conference on Monday. “Without good AI, bad AI will take us for a ride.” And, he added, “without the help of AI, identity [verification] It’s a sitting duck.”
Identity, he noted, is the most targeted part of an organization’s IT surface. AI can sniff out sophisticated and relentless phishing campaigns launched by bad AI, he claims. AI is needed to manage millions of access rights relationships that can change every second. AI can recognize overprovisioned accounts and flag suspicious overdrafts.
But, he warned, AI will also change the nature of cybersecurity and identity management work. Many cybersecurity companies announcing AI products call them “co-pilots,” meaning that humans will be doing the same jobs they’ve been doing for years, but with the help of AI solutions.
“The description of the co-pilots contains a terrible truth,” Guy warned. “In time, we should expect that many [cybersecurity] jobs will disappear, many will change, some will be created.”
This is good, he said, in part because there is a shortage of cybersecurity talent. “We can stay in the cockpit a little longer,” he added, “but we have to work differently” in an AI-powered world.
“AI will make decisions easier and automate most identity workflows. Humans will control the more impactful decisions and handle exceptions. Eventually, once we step out of the cockpit, we will have critical roles such as training, supervising, regulating, ethics and monitoring for air traffic control and flight planning.
“AI learns from the questions we ask it. We will train the AI by asking well defined thoughtful questions. We will invent new artificial intelligence models and algorithms. We’ll clean and label the data that powers the AI.
“As we’ve learned with every new technology, AI will become a target for the adversary. A good AI will protect cyberspace, and we identity humans will protect the AI. We will innovate to prevent jailbreaking of good AI. We will provide solutions to prevent data poisoning and inject quickly so that good AI stays aligned with our goals.”
But, he added, “To prepare for this AI-powered world, we have to confront our identity. [management] the crisis face to face. We need to redefine our role and our place in identity.”