Technology is constantly being superseded. Our iPhones need updating almost bi-weekly, our workday is often dependent upon Windows restarting and Facebook seems to enjoy a makeover on a monthly basis.
The pace in which our technology moves is fascinating but we are not yet at the stage where we can comfortably move alongside it meaning it’s incredibly hard to safeguard and even harder to protect.
Take your iPhone for example. You will receive a message to tell you it’s time for a software update and it might be hours, days or even weeks before you find the time to do it – then finding yourself with insufficient battery for the download and putting it off again. And don’t get me started on IoT, how do you upgrade or patch your toothbrush, Alexa or kids toys?
Microsoft is another example. Your Word may have updated overnight; or during that all-important meeting which is always helpful, and it’s time to save your document. It’s now your responsibility as the user of this technology to save the document in the correct format rather than expect it to happen for you.
Technology is moving light years ahead of our current processes causing some annoyance on a daily basis but more importantly, from a Cyber Security perspective, it’s leaving everyone who isn’t on top of it wide open. A new piece of technology could seem secure on day one but what about day 100?
Artificial Intelligence can self-heal, self-upgrade and monitor itself – essentially do all of the things we can’t do ourselves, but, it also means we rely on AI and if it evolves too much, it can move into another realm and go from working for us to against us quite quickly.
We need to start from scratch and create security by design. Hence the emergence of DevSecOps. You can’t build something and then think about its security later – all technology has to be designed with security in mind which could help us to secure AI and safeguard our evolving technology but by its very nature, AI is made to constantly evolve. That’s one race we are never going to win.
