Cybersecurity immunity is not attainable through mass participation

In the rapidly evolving landscape of cybersecurity, traditional methods are being challenged and innovated. This transformation is particularly evident in the realm of threat validation, a time-consuming and error-prone process that has long been a stumbling block in the industry.

Security teams, accountable for risk management, often find themselves in a precarious position. Although they bear the responsibility, they lack the authority to control the environment. This disconnect has led to a situation where the DevOps team, responsible for the day-to-day operations, is often required to context-switch, understanding the security implications of a finding.

However, with the increasing burden of alerts generated by cloud security tools, the traditional model of left shifting security to developers is collapsing under the avalanche of information. This has led to the democratization of security, but not without its challenges. The so-called democratization of security has, in some cases, resulted in chaos.

To regain authority and efficiency, security teams are turning to AI. AI can serve as a high-return use case for automating manual, error-prone threat validation processes. By adopting an attacker mindset in defense operations, security teams can use automation and speed to run regular attack simulations, focusing on the attack paths that pose the greatest risk.

Moreover, the role of security teams is shifting from being seen as an agility-killing cost to a legitimate and necessary business function. They are now tasked with balancing risk with the cost of risk mitigation and time to market delays. To further this goal, security teams should reframe their role from gatekeepers to prosecutors, focusing on threat validation that provides DevOps teams with winnable cases.

This shift requires collaboration between various stakeholders, including security experts, DevOps engineers, AI researchers, risk assessment specialists, compliance officers, and organizations specializing in cybersecurity and AI development. Through the use of AI-based verification and validation tools, these teams can work together more effectively, improving the efficiency and accuracy of threat validation processes.

When a finding requires remediation, a security analyst creates a ticket for the relevant DevOps team. However, it's one thing to ask DevOps to implement a change, but delegating the drudgework of threat validation to them is not advisable. DevOps teams do not have the bandwidth to investigate the validity of risks they don't own, and they are not equipped or incentivized to be the "army reserves" for the security team.

In conclusion, the application of AI to threat validation processes can lead to significant improvements in efficiency, accuracy, and collaboration between security and DevOps teams. As the cybersecurity landscape continues to evolve, it's essential for companies to focus on contextual, weaponized risk, requiring a deeper technical analysis and a culture shift. CISOs need to consolidate their power to fight increased attacks, focusing on lowering CNAPP noise and raising the bar of threat validation.