Mark Whitehead, CEO and co-founder, NDay Security, highlights the role of AI in enhancing security protocols and stresses the importance of focusing on security fundamentals and practical assessments in hiring for security roles in the following CIO Q&A:
———
Hi Mark, tell us about yourself and more about NDAY Security. How has the platform evolved over the years?
I’ve spent over two decades in cybersecurity, primarily focused on offensive security. The AttackN platform evolved from different point solutions. We created it with different modules and collectors, allowing us to easily update it as we see new attack patterns, just like the attackers are doing. No matter which year or summary report you read, the common ways organizations are breached are very similar: social engineering, unpatched systems due to n-days, misconfigurations, passwords, etc. It’s the same issues repeated every year, and these organizations are under attack 24/7/365. We questioned why organizations need five different point solutions and four different departments in large enterprises to see things from an attacker’s perspective. It really just slows them down.
Also Read: With AI Everywhere, Cloud-Based Data Unification Is a Must-Have
What would you say are some of the biggest lags and loopholes in enterprise security infrastructures as of today?
The biggest single lag/loophole to me is the simplicity of visibility while being able to take action. There will always be zero-days by the nature of how we create systems. It is challenging for an organization to have a clear view of all their assets, understand the exploitability of their systems and assess various defensive solutions to see the impact when something happens to their organization. On the defender side, we see several platformization plays taking shape. They are very powerful, with some valued at $23 billion after just four years.
The second area of concern is the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI). We fully embrace AI and are part of Nvidia’s startup inception program. We founded our company by asking three key questions: 1) Is AI technically capable of handling it at this time? 2) Can this safely be done with AI? 3) Do we need to do it this way because cybercriminals will leverage it this way?
How can IT security teams use AI optimally to support security protocols and processes?
AI is at the core of NDAY Security. Companies and platforms established before the rise of AI only have the advantage of their current users and customers. In the long term, there are many advantages to being a post-AI-founded company with vast domain experience. The steps outlined above are the process we followed. The hardest part, and what we spent the most time on, is safety. By design, we do not send customer data to any AI system. Once you solve this problem, there are many possibilities for a decision tree to determine whether a task should be handled by a human or if AI can be used to provide humans with better information more quickly and with more context.
Also Read: From Trojans to Ransomware: Top Cyber Threats Every Executive Should Know
What five fundamentals would you share with CISOs and other IT Security Leaders today basis current industry challenges and the skills and tech they and their teams need to upskill on more.
Focus on simplicity – We know it’s challenging given the demands of the job, but this will benefit you in the long run. This applies not just to technology, but also to vendors, methodologies, and how you run your operations.
Focus on the basics – We often get caught up in technical jargon. Look at cybersecurity from both an offensive and defensive perspective. Many of the fundamentals from the days when cybersecurity was called information assurance still hold true.
Build a great network – CISOs recognize great technology and discuss it when they find a provider solving a really hard problem or set of problems exceptionally well. The same goes for practitioners.
Change your hiring practices for the future – I come from a formal education background and a family of PhDs. However, there are people with less formal education and shorter experience who are better than me at this. The new wave of professionals often learn from YouTube, TikTok and their own curiosity. Don’t hold this against them. Focus on providing practical assessments for hands-on tech roles. This may also help you avoid hiring an AI-generated employee that works for North Korea.
Embrace reality – The average CISO tenure is 18 months, and for practitioners, it’s probably 2-3 years. The emphasis on simplification and platformization can help organizations manage this reality more effectively.
What predictions on the future of IT security standards and processes before we wrap up.
We will see more IT standards around specific types of technologies, which will create more noise in the ecosystem. It is challenging for companies to keep track of them all. While there are some really good standards from NIST and other governing bodies, I’m not sure if having more standards is necessarily better.
Processes will continue to become more automated through the use of AI, both within organizations and among vendors. We should also expect more mergers and acquisitions in the vendor space over the next 6-24 months. This will continue the shift from point solutions to platform/single vendor. In 5 years, 80% of all product cyber spend will be with 20 vendors and a few large consulting firms.
Lastly, all these vendors will need to develop solutions for both SMBs and enterprises, as NDAY has, because 46% of all cyber breaches impact businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees.
Also Read: Revolutionizing Cybersecurity: Adopting a Risk-Focused Approach in the AI Era
[To share your insights with us as part of editorial or sponsored content, please write to psen@itechseries.com]
Mark Whitehead, is CEO and co-founder, NDay Security
NDAY Security, named after the “n-day” vulnerability, fortifies the human element of cybersecurity by addressing known vulnerabilities and social engineering attacks before they become liabilities. Through education, awareness, and testing, NDAY Security focuses on offensive security measures developed by industry experts and generative AI to simulate even the most complex social engineering and attack schemes of today’s threat actors.
