A majority of IT leaders are worried about the cybersecurity implications brought on by the introduction of AI into their organizations.
According to Flexential’s 2024 State of AI Infrastructure Report, 95% of IT leaders said that AI has made their organization more vulnerable to cyberthreats. About half of the respondents believe this is because the “complexity of AI applications creates a larger, inherently more vulnerable attack surface for their organizations.”
Thirty-nine percent said that they are storing and processing more sensitive data than ever as a result of AI, and 51% say that more and more, they’re storing sensitive data closer to the network edge, which can have negative cybersecurity consequences.
In addition, 42% of respondents said they’ve now moved their AI applications and workloads from the public cloud to colocation environments, which Flexential concluded is an indication that companies are starting to take a more cautious approach, as colocation offers tighter control over sensitive data.
Furthermore, 40% of the respondents believe that cybersecurity teams don’t have the necessary expertise to protect AI applications and workloads.
“As AI becomes more embedded into business processes, it’s clear that enterprises need help safeguarding their organization’s critical data as well as educating and up-skilling their entire staff,” said Jason Carolan, chief innovation officer at Flexential. “Our report findings reinforce the importance of resilient and secure IT infrastructure solutions that can reduce vulnerability while supporting the high-performance demands of AI workloads.
