Shadow AI | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

AI's growing role in enterprise environments has heightened the urgency for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) to drive effective AI governance. When it comes to any emerging technology, governance is hard – but effective governance is even harder. The first instinct for most organizations is to respond with rigid policies. Write a policy document, circulate a set of restrictions, and hope the risk is contained. However, effective governance doesn't work that way. It must be a living system that shapes how AI is used every day, guiding organizations through safe transformative change without slowing down the pace of innovation.  For CISOs, finding that balance between security and speed is critical in the age of AI. This technology simultaneously represents the greatest opportunity and greatest risk enterprises have faced since the dawn of the internet. Move too fast without guardrails, and sensitive data leaks into prompts, shadow AI proliferates, or regulatory gaps bec...

As SaaS providers race to integrate AI into their product offerings to stay competitive and relevant, a new challenge has emerged in the world of AI: shadow AI.  Shadow AI refers to the unauthorized use of AI tools and copilots at organizations. For example, a developer using ChatGPT to assist with writing code, a salesperson downloading an AI-powered meeting transcription tool, or a customer support person using Agentic AI to automate tasks – without going through the proper channels. When these tools are used without IT or the Security team's knowledge, they often lack sufficient security controls, putting company data at risk. Shadow AI Detection Challenges Because shadow AI tools often embed themselves in approved business applications via AI assistants, copilots, and agents they are even more tricky to discover than traditional shadow IT. While traditional shadow apps can be identified through network monitoring methodologies that scan for unauthorized connections based on...

Early in 2024, Wing Security released its State of SaaS Security report , offering surprising insights into emerging threats and best practices in the SaaS domain. Now, halfway through the year, several SaaS threat predictions from the report have already proven accurate. Fortunately, SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) solutions have prioritized mitigation capabilities to address many of these issues, ensuring security teams have the necessary tools to face these challenges head-on. In this article, we will revisit our predictions from earlier in the year, showcase real-world examples of these threats in action, and offer practical tips and best practices to help you prevent such incidents in the future. It's also worth noting the overall trend of an increasing frequency of breaches in today's dynamic SaaS landscape, leading organizations to demand timely threat alerts as a vital capability. Industry regulations with upcoming compliance deadlines are demanding similar time-sens...