Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is impacting everybody. Like any other technology, AI is wonderful, but it is also dangerous, said Jay Chaudhry, Founder of the $2 billion US-based Zscaler Inc., a Cloud security company.
In the past, it used to take a lot of time for the ‘bad guys’ (cyber criminals) to find your Attack Surface (firewalls). Today, one can ask the ChatGPT that gives the info in less than 30 seconds, he said.
Chaudhary said it is becoming easier for them to find your Attack Surface today. Further, using AI-generated phishing campaigns, the ‘bad guys’ use ransomware attacks to easily steal data, disrupt operations, and ask for ransom. They send credible emails generated for you with proper contexts, such as the mail from your CEO or CFO, which looks very real, and you will be prompted to open it. They also use the ChatGPT to create fake pages that look real, he said. They are using AI to discover high-value assets, he added.
Zero Trust + Artificial Intelligence (AI) are the most critical issues, and addressing them is a big challenge. “Our focus has been to protect companies from such attacks by providing another level of secured firewall. Fight AI with AI. The company’s Zero Trust protects against ransomware attacks,” he added.
Zero Trust is a modern security strategy that assumes breach and verifies each request as though it originates from an open network. It is a framework that assumes a complex network’s security is always at risk of external and internal threats.
Chaudhary said Zscaler’s Zero Trust architecture and AI innovations enable organisations to secure, simplify, and transform their business, driving competitive advantage, he said in his keynote address at the ZenithLive24, the company’s annual event in Las Vegas.
- Read: Zscaler’s CEO Jay Chaudhry explains why ‘zero-trust security’ is better than Firewalls or VPNs
The Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange platform protects thousands of customers from cyberattacks and data loss by securely connecting users, devices, and applications in any location, he added.
Zscaler analyses and harnesses knowledge from over 500 trillion data points daily across users, devices, networks, and applications. The power of AI and automation increases visibility to sensitive data everywhere, provides insightful context, and delivers closed-loop workflow automation.
Chaudhry said that over 40 per cent of the Fortune 500 customers and over 40 million users are secured and powered by Zero Trust Exchange, he said. “We have the largest zero-trust security cloud with 400 billion transactions, 9 billion policies enforced daily, and 150 million threats blocked.
Chaudhry advised companies to protect against prompt injection attacks; detect secrets, keys, passwords and tokens and determine toxicity.
(This writer is in Las Vegas at the company’s invitation)