Episode 17: Personnel Security

“[AI] allows a threat actor to scale a lot faster and across multiple channels,” Kayne McGladrey, chief information security officer at compliance management company Hyperproof, told Built In. “And the defensive tools haven’t quite caught up. Unfortunately, none of this stuff is going away. This has now become a fixture of the landscape. It’s part of our new, modern cybersecurity hellscape that we inhabit continuously.”

Cybersecurity in a Hyperconnected World: By Kayne McGladrey, IEEE Member, and Stephen Cass, IEEE Spectrum Senior Editor

Join Tom Coughlin, J.L. Doty, Gloria Washington, Kathleen Kramer and me as we explore the jobs we’ll see created over the next 20 years, industry’s role driving innovation and the skills our future workforce will need.

Although motivations like that mean any organization using AI could be a victim, Kayne McGladrey, a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a nonprofit professional association, and field CISO at Hyperproof, says he expects hackers will be more likely to target the tech companies making and training AI systems.

But CISOs shouldn’t breathe a sigh of relief, McGladrey says, as their organizations could be impacted by those attacks if they are using the vendor-supplied corrupted AI systems.

“This will vary by industry and size of business,” notes Kayne McGladrey, cybersecurity strategist at Ascent Solutions. “A social media company losing control of their content for an hour has a very different risk profile than a manufacturing company being unable to manufacture products.”

When CISOs work with go-to-market teams, cybersecurity transforms from a mere cost center into a valuable business function. This change is crucial in B2B interactions where robust cybersecurity controls offer a competitive advantage. A centralized inventory of cybersecurity controls, grounded in current and past contracts, helps businesses gauge the financial impact of these partnerships. This inventory also identifies unnecessary or redundant controls, offering an opportunity for cost reduction and operational streamlining. By updating this centralized list after the termination of contracts, the business can further optimize both its security posture and operational costs. This integrated strategy empowers the business to make well-informed, data-driven decisions that enhance profitability while maintaining robust security controls.