Google unveils its strategy to assist organizations in implementing essential security measures for their artificial intelligence (AI) systems and safeguarding them against emerging cybersecurity threats.
Why it’s important: The newly introduced conceptual framework, shared exclusively with Axios, aims to enable companies to rapidly secure their AI systems, preventing potential hacker exploitation of AI models or data theft from these models.
The broader context: Frequently, when a new technological trend gains popularity, businesses and consumers tend to overlook cybersecurity and data privacy concerns.
- For instance, in the case of social media, users were so eager to connect on new platforms that they paid little attention to how their data was collected, shared, or protected.
- Google is concerned that a similar pattern is emerging with AI systems, as companies swiftly adopt and integrate these models into their workflows.
What they’re emphasizing: “We want people to remember that many of the risks associated with AI can be mitigated by implementing these basic elements,” stated Phil Venables, CISO at Google Cloud, in an interview with Axios.
- “While people search for more advanced approaches, they must also recognize the importance of getting the fundamentals right.”
Details: Google’s Secure AI framework encourages organizations to implement the following six principles:
- Evaluate existing security controls that can be easily extended to new AI systems, such as data encryption.
- Expand threat intelligence research to encompass specific threats targeting AI systems.
- Incorporate automation into the company’s cybersecurity defenses to swiftly respond to any anomalous activity targeting AI systems.
- Regularly review the security measures in place for AI models.
- Continuously test the security of AI systems through penetration tests and make necessary adjustments based on the findings.
- Establish a team knowledgeable about AI-related risks to determine the appropriate placement of AI risk within an organization’s overall risk mitigation strategy.
Reading between the lines: Venables mentioned that many of these security practices are already employed by mature organizations across various departments.
- “We quickly realized that most of the ways to manage security around the use and development of AI align with how you think about managing data access,” he added.
The intriguing part: To incentivize the adoption of these principles, Google is collaborating with its customers and governments to explore the application of these concepts.
- Additionally, the company plans to expand its bug bounty program to include the discovery of security vulnerabilities related to AI safety and security, as outlined in a blog post.
What’s ahead: Google intends to gather feedback on its framework from industry partners and government entities.
- “While we believe we have made significant progress in these areas, we are open to suggestions for improvement,” Venables remarked.