Simply earlier than ChatGPT’s first birthday (Nov. 30), a report from Fastly highlights the truth that many organizations view generative AI (GenAI) as a rising cybersecurity risk. Information breaches and knowledge loss (40%); identity-based threats, resembling malware and phishing (38%); and generative AI (29%) are seen as the largest cybersecurity threats over the following 12 months, in line with Fastly’s 2023 “International Safety Analysis Report,” a survey of 1,484 IT decision-makers in organizations with greater than 500 workers all over the world.
Even with GenAI making the record of prime three cybersecurity threats over the following 12 months, it was clear from the report that GenAI is seen as each a optimistic and destructive improvement. Respondents say GenAI would enhance productiveness (43%), guarantee their companies are extra protected towards cyber threats (42%), and guarantee workers are skilled in cybersecurity fundamentals (36%). On the destructive aspect are fears that GenAI will open new avenues for assault (67%) and put companies at larger threat of assaults (58%).
Virtually half (46%) are involved that their safety groups shouldn’t have expertise with new and rising applied sciences and threats resembling GenAI. To mitigate these dangers, organizations are centered on creating and implementing a companywide coverage (34%) and coaching workers to acknowledge related dangers (34%).
The IT decision-makers — two-thirds of them immediately make or affect cybersecurity choices — within the survey appear to anticipate the identical sorts of threats that impacted their organizations over the previous 12 months will proceed to bedevil them over the following 12 months, in line with the report. These decision-makers stuffed a wide range of roles, together with cloud operations, IT administration, utility architects, and safety operations analysts.
When respondents had been requested about elements driving cybersecurity threats to the enterprise over the previous 12 months, they listed an more and more subtle risk panorama (35%), assaults focusing on distant staff (33%), an absence of inside schooling round cybersecurity finest practices (32%), and the emergence of GenAI applied sciences (32%). The order modified, however the prime three elements remained the identical, when respondents had been requested what would drive cybersecurity threats to the enterprise over the following 12 months: an more and more subtle risk panorama (37%), the emergence of generative AI expertise (35%), and cyberattacks focusing on distant staff (33%).
Some variations in notion could be seen throughout trade sectors, resembling the truth that respondents within the authorities sector (40%) had been virtually twice as seemingly as these within the schooling sector (22%) to quote assaults towards distant staff as the primary driver of cybersecurity threats over the previous 12 months. When waiting for the following 12 months, respondents in transportation (40%) had been extra involved about cyberattacks on distant staff than these in authorities (19%).