Page 115 - Cyber Defense eMagazine October 2023

New skills in an AI world

But the adoption of AI changes the risk calculations, it also helps organizations better manage the risks.

Leaders of the cybersecurity industry talked a lot about workforce development during BlackHat 2023,
both during the formal presentations as well as informal conversations over a cup of coffee. The smartest
take-away, I think, came from Kemba Walden’s presentation.

The cybersecurity profession, she said, finds itself in a position very similar to the position of banks when
ATMs were rolled out in the early 1970s. Back then, everyone worried that automatic tellers would take
the jobs of all the human tellers. Today, many worry that AI will dramatically reduce the need for human
expertise in cybersecurity.

But, she reminded us, bank tellers didn’t disappear. Instead, they developed new skills and began
handling a wider variety of tasks in bank offices. Cybersecurity professionals, too, will survive and thrive
in the world of AI as they upgrade their skills and seek out new opportunities to put those skills to work.
This, of course, is not good news to those workers in the cybersecurity business who have done little
more than list “compliance” as a bullet point on their Web sites and promotional materials. In any
profession, AI is most threatening to those who do routine tasks in a routine way.

But cybersecurity professionals who sharpen their skills in ways that allow them to provide risk-analysis
and risk-mitigation to top leaders of organizations will continue to thrive. They won’t bring routine answers.
They’ll deliver sharp insights that provide true value.

More than talk

But still, it all comes down to the organization's commitment to move beyond mere compliance into a
position of risk management and mitigation. It takes more than talking.

Years ago, when Kemba Walden’s boss, President Joe Biden, still was a U.S. Senator from Delaware,
quoted: “Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget and I’ll show you what you value.”

That’s particularly true in today’s cybersecurity environment and further emphasized in what was
discussed at this year’s BlackHat conference. Organizations that truly value security, those that choose
to manage and mitigate their risks, are establishing budgets that show what they value, and they’re
putting those budgets to work with smart people and powerful tools that make us all more secure.

Cyber Defense eMagazine – October 2023 Edition 115
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