Navigating the Cybersecurity Landscape: Key Threats, Generative AI, and Zero Trust Strategies
CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Sudip Banerjee, CTO, Asia Pacific & Japan at Zscaler
What, in your opinion, are some of the most pressing cyber threats today that CISO/CTOs should be vigilant about?
In today’s interconnected digital world, the cyber threat landscape is fast evolving and adding on more vulnerabilities and risks to organizations. One of the most prevalent trends on the rise that CISOs must address is Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS). This essentially means that even individuals without any programming background can outsource the task of launching a ransomware attack against any organization. This could prove to be a grave situation considering it requires little knowledge and opens doors to an even wider array of threat actors.
Additionally, supply chain attacks are also gaining momentum in today’s landscape – allowing attackers to take advantage of vulnerabilities through third-party vendors. In this situation, CISOs must also conduct vendor assessments and implement continuous monitoring to detect any anomalies as they occur. It is imperative for CISOs to protect the organization from phishing attacks as they become increasingly sophisticated and are able to cover a larger attack surface. Furthermore, the influence of emerging technologies and major geopolitical events persists in shaping the cybersecurity environment, introducing novel threats with the potential to disrupt business operations significantly.
How do you perceive the evolving implications of Generative AI on data protection policies and strategies?
Generative AI is quickly becoming a significant part of any organization’s growth strategy, especially when it comes to bolstering data management and cybersecurity efforts. Its capabilities enable IT teams to create simulated attacks, environments or scenarios to stay ahead of threats and anomalies. While integrating generative AI into your technology stack has its benefits, it is vital that organizations align the implementation to any local data privacy regulations and ensure that the datasets being leveraged are safeguarded against external threats.
With the sheer volume of data being generated today, it is vital for us to leverage tools like generative AI that ensures nothing falls through the cracks. As such, we are leveraging generative AI to detect data leaks which is fast becoming a critical issue. We have also introduced Data Protection for AI, which prevents data leakage, and AITotalTM, which evaluates AI applications from a cybersecurity standpoint by understanding the application’s risk profile. As part of our mission to deliver the best-of-breed cybersecurity solutions to our customers, we are further enhancing our suite of solutions with generative AI to elevate security detection, analysis, and response capabilities which will ultimately improve the end user’s experience.
Can you share examples of companies implementing best practices to mitigate risks, enhance user experience, and gain agility through the utilization of Generative AI tools?
Generative AI is revolutionizing industries, with access to proprietary enterprise data providing a competitive advantage for organizations looking to fast-track their transformation. Some of the best practices that companies today are implementing to mitigate risks associated with generative AI include relying on Zero Trust to protect sensitive data. For example, with Zscaler’s Zero Trust ExchangeTM, companies can create and implement policies around generative AI sites that their users can visit and further manage on how they interact with it. This allows companies to leverage AI with more confidence as they find themselves mitigating risks in a more aligned manner and avoiding any inadvertent data leak.
A lot of our customers are leveraging AI and are incorporating flexible policies around its use, which is made possible by our AI-specific features including the ability to block access at any time with just a few clicks. For even greater protection, customers are rendering AI and ML applications in browser isolation. This will allow user prompts and restrict clipboard use for uploads or downloads. With Zscaler, our customers are able to get full visibility into AI tools to manage and monitor any anomalies. With some finetuning, not only can generative AI become secure but can also become a tool for ensuring cybersecurity.
In what ways have companies been leveraging the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange, and how does this platform-based approach impact their cybersecurity strategies?
Our customers have been leveraging Zscaler Zero Trust ExchangeTM to achieve some of their most critical business goals when it comes to cybersecurity. The Zscaler Zero Trust ExchangeTM enables companies to focus on the key business requirements instead of being concerned about their threat surface. For example, Godrej is leveraging Zscaler to modernize security and improve visibility over users and environments with zero trust. They can detect when a user is compromised and have an increased visibility over the network environment. The burden placed on their security team has also reduced thanks to the cloud delivered zero trust architecture.
Zscaler Zero Trust ExchangeTM allows companies to securely connect their remote workers to any application, regardless of where they are located or what device they use. It helps companies deliver fast and seamless digital experiences to their customers by optimizing the performance and availability of their applications. For example, the Mahindra Group leveraged Zscaler Zero Trust ExchangeTM to digitize customer experience and employee journey. They were able to leverage AI and ML for real-time data insights.
Could you elaborate on the integrated solution available for distributed data protection and how it contributes to enhanced security measures?
Data protection is one of the most critical aspects of any IT initiative. However, it often gets pushed down the priority list. One of the primary reasons for this is that CISOs have to deal with various point products which can make data protection complicated and time consuming. CISOs need to look into an integrated approach to data protection. By combining a Secure Web Gateway (SWG), Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), organizations can get significant protection that is easily integrated in one location. In addition, organizations require an additional layer of protection considering the multiple channels that data can be routed through including data-in-motion and data-at-rest. There are many solutions to address this including SSL inspection to find sensitive data headed to the internet, solving BYOD use cases, SaaS security posture management to identify dangerous misconfiguration in SaaS platforms, and more. With these solutions, organizations can streamline the process of adding on security features to protect sensitive data in a much more integrated manner.
Given the evolving threat landscape and the emergence of new technologies, how crucial is it to embed security measures into every product? Could you highlight the significance of this approach?
As organizations understand the best use cases for emerging technologies, the threat actors are also leveraging said technologies to increase the sophistication of their attack vectors. At such a time, security measures become an organizational imperative to ensure smooth business operations and end-user experience. With the Zero Trust approach, organizations need to adopt a “never trust, always verify” mindset that allows access to vital resources by trusted users, workloads and applications only.
Security by its very nature needs to be integrated into the core of every product to minimize any vulnerabilities and make the foundations of IT infrastructures much more robust. It reduces the risks and costs of dealing with security issues at later stages, as well as enhances the trust and confidence of customers and stakeholders. Ultimately, this becomes critical considering, in today’s competitive business landscape, security can no longer be an afterthought.
