As generative AI is transforming the way businesses around the world work, plan and evolve, the need to secure the data that such platforms use and generate is paramount.
Although still primarily considered a leader in cloud and storage, Amazon Web Services seeks to play a key role in ensuring that businesses of all sizes remain secure against the multitude of security threats facing organizations today.
And with the growing popularity of generative AI leading to an explosion of potential security threats, the company is preparing to be the ideal ally when it comes to keeping your data protected in the era of generative AI.
Raising the bar
“There is always work to be done in security to continue raising the bar. The question is: where are the risks and how to focus on them?” Chris Betz, CISO at AWS says TechRadar Pro in an exclusive interview.
Generative AI is set to provide many advantages, but when analyzed in its simplest form, Betz points out that platforms must take due care and attention.
“Talking to CISOs, there is a recognition that generative AI models are code,” he laughs. “And just like code, it's important that you have all the protections that you would normally have in any software program.”
As mentioned, AWS's experience in much of the tech industry means it's in a good place to provide these protections as part of a comprehensive offering, especially good news if your workers are already familiar with AWS technologies.
“One of the most amazing things about the infrastructure we've built here at AWS is that it's built and protected as a consistent, natural motion,” says Betz, highlighting the importance of how generative AI fits within general security applications, such as companies do it. It is not simply about using generative AI on its own, but as part of a broader solution.
“To get the most out of generative AI, you have to be able to get large volumes of data very close to incredible processing power and be able to protect that data at all times, because in some cases, some of the most sensitive data you have. What makes your business unique is the data you want to incorporate into your model to train and educate it.”
“That's part of the reason we designed the (AWS security) platform: we wanted to offer options so you can have the same foundation and then bring in different platforms… it's really about giving builders options and the tools they need. “
Betz says that generative AI has to fit within a company's existing systems and that “bringing all of this together, running it on a platform that operates within a set of other technologies, all within a consistent security wrapper, is incredibly valuable.” “.
“Generation AI is an incredibly powerful tool for answering a certain set of questions,” he adds, “My goal with security and technology in general is to enable people to do smart, high-judgment work, and computers do the rest.” .”
As with any new technology, the question arises about what role real humans will have to play, especially since much of the hype around generative AI is about making our lives easier.
But since humans are often the weakest link in cybersecurity, can AI-powered systems finally help reduce risk?
Betz is cautious, noting that while generative AI is really good at gathering massive amounts of data and helping us understand it, “I still don't see it as a replacement for human judgment, but it is an incredible way for people to look and see.” “. Find answers faster and easier.”
Instead, he says it can play a key role as part of a suite of technologies that are poised to continue helping us solve problems, and that computers stick to solving the problems they are best suited for.
“People solve really difficult, thoughtful problems, and as with any technology, they need to question the data they get and make sure it's the quality we want,” he says.
“I want the safe way to be the easy way, and I want the easy way to be the safe way,” he adds, using as an example humans distracted by a potential phishing email test from his company's IT team. It's a perfect part of how we do our jobs, it works best – when there's friction and people have to stop doing the work they're trying to do to pause and think about safety, that's where we're in the most position. risky. , where human judgment can fail.”
Overall, Betz is confident in the role of generative AI within the tech industry as a whole, and with AWS leading the way in so many areas, this confidence seems well placed.
“I'm very excited to see where we go with generative AI in the next 12 months,” concludes Betz, “as an industry, we have a solid foundation, at least within AWS, and I'm really interested to see where we continue to build and explore, but we also continue to make the use of these technologies safer for people.”
