Generative AI Security - Understand the Key Pillars

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) security protects organizations that use GenAI applications, mitigating the risk of data loss and addressing concerns related to regulatory compliance and privacy. Because some GenAI applications can access, manipulate, and create sensitive data, they serve as lucrative targets for cybercriminals.

Our exploration will focus on GenAI applications and the unique security challenges they pose.

We will examine their vulnerabilities, understand how malicious use of GenAI can negatively impact organizations, and discover how to mitigate these risks.

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How Do GenAI Tools Work?

Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence with the capability to create new, original content in response to a user’s prompt, including:

Text
Images
Music
Videos

GenAI tools have revolutionized the way we interact with computers and data by enabling machines to synthesize and create content, write code, and perform other tasks in a fraction of the time. However, unsecured GenAI applications and tools can be exploited by malicious actors to:

Steal or modify data
Disrupt business operations
Create fake content to deceive users or damage a company’s reputation

That’s precisely where GenAI security comes into play – it can help your organization:

Discover how and where ChatGPT, Gemini, and other GenAI tools are used.
Pinpoint the highest-risk GenAI applications deployed in the organization.
Learn the top use cases for which GenAI is used, e.g. for marketing content, programming assistance, data analytics etc..
Apply data protection measures to protect confidential information
Meet regulations through detailed reporting on GenAI usage

Security Risks of Generative AI

Generative AI cybersecurity is essential due to the accelerating adoption of GenAI into organizational infrastructure.

GenAI tools have the potential to access and manipulate vast amounts of sensitive data, including personally identifiable information (PII), confidential business data, and intellectual property. The powerful capabilities of GenAI tools make them an increasingly attractive target for cybercriminals. Here are just a few potential risks:

Data Breaches: GenAI models typically require access to large datasets to learn and improve. Without proper security, malicious actors may be able to exploit vulnerabilities in networks, systems, or the models themselves, to gain access to potentially sensitive training data.
Malicious Use: GenAI can be used to launch sophisticated and clever attacks, such as AI-powered phishing campaigns. For example, a hacker could hijack a support chatbot, manipulating the tool so that it convinces customers to reveal login credentials or sensitive PII for purposes of identity theft.
Lack of Transparency and Accountability: The way GenAI systems generate content is somewhat mysterious — even experts may not not fully understand why a system generates a particular output. This makes for challenging accountability issues, such as identifying exactly who is responsible when things go wrong.

The autonomous nature of GenAI systems means they operate independently or semi-independently. This poses a challenge for administrators and security staff to detect and respond to potential security threats.

4 Generative AI Security Best Practices

The following best practices will help you safely and securely adopt these powerful technologies.

Data Encryption and Secure Storage: Because generative AI models rely on large data sets for correct training, it’s key to have strong encryption in place to protect data both at rest and in transit. Preventing unauthorized access safeguards sensitive company data and protects the integrity of GenAI systems.
Data Sourcing & Accountability: Organizations should establish and maintain clear guidelines for data sourcing, model training, and output interpretation to ensure the integrity of data used to train models. Malicious subversion of training data could result in biased, discriminatory, or outright malicious behavior by GenAI systems.
Access Controls and Role-Based Permissions: Ensure that only authorized personnel interact with GenAI tools by implementing strict access controls and role-based permissions. For instance, users may have only limited access to certain models, datasets, and output results based on their job responsibilities.

Regular Software Updates: It’s essential to stay current with the latest software and GenAI application programming interface (API) versions to ensure safe and secure access to critical systems. Outdated or insecure applications are high-value targets for hackers.

Key Pillars for a Robust Generative AI Security Strategy

Organizations must prepare for the long-term, foundational changes that generative AI tools will have on business operations. This means planning to encounter and respond to a range of novel security and operational threats.

Visibility & Awareness: You must have broad visibility into their use of generative AI tools. This includes the identification of which GenAI systems are in use, where they fit into the infrastructure, and how these systems interact with users. Discovery tools identify where GenAI is in use.
Access Control: Prioritization of access controls is necessary for the highest risk GenAI applications. This may include configuration of role-based permissions, deployment of multi-factor authentication, and setup of monitoring and reporting systems to gauge usage patterns.
AI Governance & Compliance: Developing processes to ensure the safe and secure use of AI within the organization is critical to reducing the potential for legal and reputational risks.
Incident Response: Use of generative AI systems may require reassessment of your organization’s risk profile and the development of new incident response procedures. This will likely include changes to how the organization identifies, contains, eradicates, and recovers from AI-related security incidents.

Generative AI Security With GenAI Protect from Check Point

Generative AI represents an unparalleled opportunity for businesses in the areas of innovation, efficiency, and creativity. But, at the same time, GenAI tools expose organizations to new, unfamiliar vectors for data theft, security breaches, compliance risk, and financial losses.

Check Point’s Infinity Platform offers the tools that your organization needs to implement effective zero-trust in the age of AI, including:

GenAI security for safe GenAI adoption in the enterprise
Integrated AI capabilities for advanced threat prevention and response

Worried about the security of your GenAI?

Check Point GenAI Solutions enables the safe adoption of generative AI applications in the enterprise. Using groundbreaking AI-powered data analysis that accurately classifies conversational data within prompts, GenAI security solutions deliver GenAI application discovery, prevent data leakage and enable meeting regulations.

Experience GenAI security for yourself – Join the GenAI Security Program today to be notified when it’s live.