Richard Stiennon: The Good, Bad, and Ugly About AI Cybersecurity

Richard Stiennon, a cybersecurity pioneer, author, and industry executive, spoke about the hottest trending topic of our day in this Kitecast episode: artificial intelligence (AI). He currently serves as the Chief Research Analyst at IT-Harvest, a research organization he founded in 2017, which provides access to data on more than 3,318 cybersecurity vendors. To streamline and automate the compilation of data, Stiennon explains how IT-Harvest is using ChatGPT 4.0. On that note, Stiennon discusses how AI is transforming cybersecurity—both for the good and the bad. 

Cybercriminals are finding ways around guardrails instituted in commercially available AI solutions like ChatGPT and Bard or simply developing their own to accelerate the development of malware, automate advanced persistent threats, and generate human-like phishing and spear-phishing attacks. At the same time, cybersecurity vendors are rapidly adding new AI capabilities to their product portfolios that improve the efficacy and efficiency of threat prevention, incident response, threat correlation and analysis, and more. Beyond the topic of AI, Stiennon addressed his thoughts on the role of cybersecurity leaders and subject-matter experts when it comes to serving as a board member or advisor. As a board member and advisor for a number of cybersecurity and compliance companies, he argues that organizations need to rethink how cybersecurity is discussed at the business level. Rather than teaching CISOs to speak the language of the business, they need to speak the language of cybersecurity and teach boards to understand cybersecurity risk through the lens of cybersecurity. 

LinkedIn Profile: www.linkedin.com/in/stiennon/ 

IT-Harvest: www.it-harvest.com 

Published Books:

Net Zeros and Ones: How Data Erasure Promotes Sustainability, Privacy, and Security

https://www.amazon.com/Net-Zeros-Ones-Promotes-Sustainability-ebook/dp/B0BN72M57X/ref=sr_1_3

Secure Cloud Transformation: The CIO's Journey

https://www.amazon.com/Secure-Cloud-Transformation-CIOS-Journey/dp/1945254203

UP and to the RIGHT: Strategy and Tactics of Analyst Influence

https://www.amazon.com/UP-RIGHT-Strategy-Influence-influence/dp/0985460709

There Will Be Cyberware: How the Move to Network-centric War Fighting Has Set the Stage for Cyberwar

https://www.amazon.com/There-Will-Be-Cyberwar-Network-Centric/dp/0985460784/

Surviving Cyber War

https://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Cyberwar-Richard-Stiennon/dp/1605906883/

Check out video versions of Kitecast episodes at https://www.kiteworks.com/kitecast or on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/c/KiteworksCGCP.