The Shield
& The Sword.
AI is the greatest asset for CISOs and the greatest weapon for threat actors. We analyze the dichotomy: AI for Cybersecurity (The Shield) and the Cybersecurity of AI (The Vulnerability).
AI in Cyber
The Defensive Advantage
AI systems can analyze terabytes of log data in real-time, identifying anomalies that human analysts would miss.SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) platforms now use AI to autonomously patch vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
The Offensive Threat
Adversaries use LLMs to write Polymorphic Malware—code that rewrites itself to evade antivirus detection. AI also scales Spear Phishing, generating hyper-personalized emails based on a target's LinkedIn profile at industrial scale.
Security of AI
Securing the model itself is the new frontier. LLMs introduce unique attack vectors not covered by traditional firewalls.
1. Prompt Injection
"Jailbreaking" the model. Attackers manipulate inputs (e.g., "Ignore previous instructions") to force the AI to bypass safety filters and reveal proprietary data or execute malicious code.
2. Data Poisoning
Injecting malicious data into the training set. If an attacker can poison the "ground truth," they can create a "backdoor" where the AI misclassifies specific inputs (e.g., ignoring a specific malware signature).
3. Model Inversion
Querying the API repeatedly to reconstruct the training data, potentially extracting PII (Personally Identifiable Information) or trade secrets embedded in the weights.
The CISO's New Mandate: OWASP for LLMs
Red Teaming
Continuous adversarial testing. Hiring experts to try and break your AI before the bad guys do.
Input Sanitization
Treating prompts like SQL injection risks. Validating and scrubbing all inputs before they reach the LLM.
Human-in-the-Loop
Never allowing an AI agent to execute high-privilege actions (like deleting databases) without human confirmation.