Intersection of AI and Cybersecurity with Paul Valente

AI creates opportunities as well as challenges. We may need to become more skeptical about what we see and hear knowing that images and words can be generated without transparency of its creation. Today’s guest is Paul Valente. Paul is the CEO and co-founder of VISO Trust, a former CISO of Restoration Hardware, Lending Club, and ASAPP with over 20 years of technology, financial services, ecommerce, and information security innovation. Paul holds several industry designations, including Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Information Systems Manager (CISM) and ISO 27001 Lead Implementer.

Show Notes:

• [1:02] - Paul shares his background and what he does now in his career.

• [3:23] - One of the key learning opportunities for Paul was being a victim and being involved in scams and cyberattacks.

• [5:28] - It’s getting harder and harder now to tell something’s legitimacy with the ability to use AI to generate content for scamming.

• [7:54] - As a consumer, when you work with a company and share your data, you are sharing it with the whole ecosystem.

• [10:16] - It is very hard for security to be managed when there is so much data.

• [11:58] - Surveys sometimes give a false sense of security.

• [14:21] - At VISO, they remove the friction in order to make the process scale. There are so many third parties and vendors. Focus on real information.

• [17:02] - Security is not a solved problem. There are always imperfections.

• [19:07] - There’s a variety of different responses to cybersecurity breaches.

• [20:46] - Companies who are transparent about breaches tend to be seen as good companies. It’s how you handle it and take steps to communicate.

• [23:27] - We’ve been trained to look for errors but today, with the use of generative AI, it is easier for scammers to create perfect messages.

• [25:30] - We need to learn ways to improve our ability to discern real content from fake content.

• [26:46] - AI also creates unique opportunities.

• [29:47] - We still tend to have the idea of AI being a sentient being based on science fiction. So what is AI?

• [31:12] - It’s all about shrinking the problem space.

• [33:17] - AI growth and what is called the Cyber Kill Chain will happen incrementally.

• [34:55] - Be aware of where you are communicating. You will need to look hard when it comes to social engineering.

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