3 Reasons Why You Need To Learn AI Security NOW
Start learning this red-hot niche now in Cybersecurity.
As 2024 starts to gear up .. we are seeing AI move into the maturity phase, where the talk is less about how awesome it is and more about what businesses can do with it.
Despite all the talk about market disruption .. AI will also create a LOT of jobs.
One area that will be impacted in a major way is Cybersecurity
I don't just mean about new products with the “powered by AI” buzzword that vendors love to harp on about
I mean, a completely new niche industry is about to be created within Cybersecurity
In this article, I go over three reasons why AI Security is something you need to start learning NOW
Reason 1: AI Regulation Is Heating Up
AI is a bit like the Wild West, with companies getting free rein to do what they want with little oversight.
That is about to change for a lot of reasons.
First, the upcoming EU AI regulation is right around the corner
The regulation widely touted as the first proper AI law, will do for AI what the DPR did for data privacy, i.e., set the global benchmark, which everyone will copy.
Additionally, we have things like the NIST AI Framework that even the US Government mentioned in their executive order about AI.
Not to mention the new ISO 42001 standard that has come out about creating an AI Management System (AIMS)
Simply put .. there are a lot of regulations coming out, and companies will be in desperate need of professionals who know how to govern and secure AI.
Reason 2: GenAI Adoption Is Heating Up at the Enterprise Level
We are way beyond the “ChatGPT is cool” phase now.
Businesses are now harnessing GenAI to transform how they operate and do business.
Big tech like Amazon have released enterprise-level offerings like Bedrock, powered by their massive infrastructure.
GenAI will be hooking up to business applications and massive data stores stored on the cloud or on-prem.
We are waaay beyond creating CustomGPTs here.
But as these GenAI models get closer and closer to business data, CISOs will be sweating and looking at professionals with skills in GenAI security.
Penetration Testing of AI and discovering attacks like Prompt Injections are going to be massively in demand going forward.
Reason 3: The Future Of Cybersecurity Is Automation
Last but not least .. automation is the future of cybersecurity
Think of any task that does not require human analysis, and chances are that it will be gone in a few years
Running a security scan, downloading a report, and emailing it to IT teams to fix? — GONE
Responding to basic security alerts, creating security tickets, and closing them — GONE
In their place will be AI-powered agents that will have the capability to take action based on the guardrails yet
The good news is that professionals will be needed who can monitor these agents AND make sure they do not get compromised also
Questions that CISOs will need answered:
How much access will be granted to AI-powered cybersecurity agents?
Where will human oversight be needed?
Just like we have security endpoint engineers, we will have AI endpoint engineers to monitor this new landscape.
Are You Ready for This Massive Change?
Think of learning AI security as an insurance policy for your cybersecurity career
AI won't replace you, but you WILL need to learn to work alongside in the new world
Upskill ASAP in AI security to have the necessary skills to survive
The good news is that learning AI security is not difficult
I learned it from scratch when GenAI was not a word, and nobody knew anything about ChatGPT
There are five simple steps:
Understand how machine learning works. This is the engine that drives AI
Learn how biases get introduced into AI and how to mitigate them
Understand AI's unique attacks like membership inference, model evasion, data poisoning, etc. These will become as common as SQL injections to web applications.
Learn about AI Risk Management Frameworks. The NIST AI RMF is a great place to start.
Understand AI-specific security controls and how to implement them, such as secure model pipelines and AI security testing.
I have written a complete guide on this, which you can refer to below
A simple guide for how to learn AI security
AI is everywhere in 2023 which is amazing and terrifying at the same time Even if you do not buy into the hype, you cannot deny just how big of an impact AI is having on nearly every industry across the world One area that is going to become huge in the coming years is that of AI security due to the massive adoption that is happening