Security Pros Grapple With Ways to Manage GenAI Risk

While security professionals are generally enthusiastic about the potential role of generative AI (GenAI) in their organizations, they are also concerned about the impact these new tools could have in their environments. Dark Reading's survey on the use of GenAI in the enterprise reveals a high degree of awareness and concern about the potential pitfalls of going all in on this technology.

Nearly three-fourths of survey respondents express some concern about the security and safety risks posed by ChatGPT and other GenAI technologies. About the same number also believe employees are using public GenAI technologies for work purposes — even if they are not fully authorized to do so.

A majority of respondents (86%) say that organizations have to have appropriate risk management tools to maintain trust in the technology. However, questions surround what strategies to use to mitigate risk, whether that is AI governance (43%), defining data guidelines and policy (42%), reviewing responses returned by GenAI to identify undesirable results (42%), or setting up an AI application security program (40%). A slight majority (57%) say awareness training focusing on responsible AI practices is needed.

Says one survey respondent, "Wish those confounded young'uns could understand risk!"

While 30% of respondents say the responsibility for deploying and managing GenAI tools falls under IT in their organizations, 17% say it is part of cybersecurity and 25% have a dedicated AI group. Even so, the ultimate responsibility for security and risk management for GenAI falls under cybersecurity for 27% of respondents and under the dedicated AI group for 21% of the respondents.

While there was no clear majority when asked about the biggest challenges their organizations face in regard to GenAI security and risk management, survey respondents' top four answers were: uncertainty about how regulatory compliance applies to GenAI (47%), no transparency in third-party generative AI tools (46%), no consensus on GenAI guidelines and policies (43%), and data governance (39%).

Learn more about what Dark Reading readers think about GenAI in the enterprise.