Data dialogues: Protecting personal data with AWS Director Jenny Brinkley

This episode features an interview with Jenny Brinkley. Jenny is Director of Amazon Security at AWS. Prior to joining Amazon, she co-founded an artificial intelligence start-up called Harvest.ai focused on protecting highly sensitive data using behavior analytics to prevent data loss. Harvest.ai was then acquired by AWS in April 2016. Jenny has also been awarded a few patents focused on data loss prevention and the right to be digitally forgotten. And on this episode, Jenny and host Tim Chase discuss the value of personal data, the importance of security at the executive level, and diversification of the workforce.

Key Quotes

*”We're living in a really interesting time where people are just starting to understand the value of their interactions with different digital products and the different types of outputs that they get. But then couple in the fact of where we're seeing the future of how Gen AI related to still keeping me unique and special and different is important. And that's where I really am curious to see how this year is going to unfold related to individuals understanding the value of that data and how to stay not only safe as you're operating online, but  how to also think about how you either get compensated for the use of your data, or how you get to set the parameters of what you want to see with the different type of data that can be used in training models.”

*”People don't necessarily understand what they create and how valuable that is, but then also how to protect themselves as they're operating within different technology stacks.”

*”I feel so blessed I was able to spend that time in thinking about how data classification at the scale of AWS really should operate and how it should think. But I think that there's still such an open space for someone to come in and solve for making it easy. Like, how do you really identify that type of data that's so important to your organization and who has access to it? And how do you turf up alerts in a way that can not only give you insight into how to take action, but that all should be automated for you. And that's where I really see the future of where generative AI is going to come into play.”

Time Stamps

[0:56] Jenny Brinkley's Journey: From AI Startup to Amazon Security

[1:30] The Evolution of Data Protection and Privacy

[2:46] Understanding the Value of Data in the Age of Generative AI

[5:02] The Role of Security in Business and Regulatory Compliance

[10:28] The Shift in Security Mindset: From Basement to Boardroom

[14:52] Redefining Data Loss Prevention and the Future of AI in Security

[23:31] Diversifying the Cybersecurity Workforce for the Future

[34:52] The Importance of Community Engagement

Links

Connect with Jenny on LinkedIn

Learn more about AWS

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This podcast is brought to you by Lacework, the leading data-driven cloud-native application protection platform. Lacework is trusted by nearly 1,000 global innovators to secure the cloud from build to run. Lacework delivers true end-to-end protection, empowering customers to prioritize risks, find known and unknown threats faster, achieve continuous cloud compliance, and work smarter–not harder–all from one unified platform. Learn more at Lacework.com.