CYBER DEFENSE – Enterprise security leaders are grappling with mounting anxiety as AI becomes embedded in the workplace and the fear I’m writing about isn’t AI replacing jobs.
From recent (and ongoing) conversations with CISOs across industries, we all circle back to the same uncomfortable question: What happens when the most knowledgeable identity in your organization is no longer human?
Organizations are rushing to implement AI tools, whether it’s due to pressure from the Board or a genuine effort to increase productivity. But, behind the scenes of this mad dash, non-human identities are gaining sweeping, unchecked permissions to all your company’s data.
AI in the workplace is no longer a futuristic concept; it is a board-level mandate. The traditional security model forged over the past few decades was designed with human users in mind; a financial analyst has access to financial models, while a human resources manager has access to payroll data and so forth. But AI agents are not human. Your company’s AI agent might be a centralized tool to gather, organize and enrich organization-wide data, operating within a permissions model that is much higher than any singular human user. But it cannot distinguish between what the agent is allowed to access versus what the person asking it a question is allowed to access.
With more than two decades of experience in public relations and journalism, Mike is a strategic communications leader who focuses on media relations and reputation management.