Despite high usage of public generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) among organisations, security leaders admit not having a policy in place and not fully understanding its implications, reports Splunk in the “State of Security 2024: The Race to Harness AI” survey on 1,650 security leaders.
The report revealed that most security leaders use public Gen AI across their respective organisations (93%), specifically for cybersecurity operations (91%). However, respondents admit to not having a Gen AI policy in place (34%) and not fully understanding the implications of Gen AI (65%).
AI gold rush
According to the report, 44% of security leaders consider generative AI as a top initiative in 2024, surpassing cloud security.
Almost half (45%) of the respondents believe Gen AI is advantageous for threat actors, while 43% believe the technology will favour cybersecurity defenders.
“We are in an AI gold rush, with bad actors and security professionals both trying to seize the advantage,” said Patrick Coughlin, SVP of Global Technical Sales, Splunk. “The introduction of Gen AI creates new opportunities for organisations to streamline processes, increase productivity, and limit staff burnout. Unfortunately, Gen AI also presents unprecedented advantages for threat actors. To combat this new threat landscape, defenders must outpace threat actors in the race to harness and securely deploy the power of Gen AI.”
Gen AI and talent gap
Most cybersecurity leaders believe Gen AI can enable them to hire more entry-level talent (86%) and can make it quicker (58%)
Security leaders find that Gen AI will be beneficial to developing skills of entry-level talent (90%) and help raise the productivity of seasoned cybersecurity professionals (65%).