An artistic collaboration between Human Cognition and Artificial Intelligence | By Sean & TAPE3
In this fictional story, we take a 10-year journey into the future, exploring the evolving challenges and opportunities facing two CISOs—Emma and Harper—for a view of today's role and that in a decade from now.
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Emma's Present-Day Challenges: The CISO of 2023
Emma sits in her bustling office, her eyes scanning multiple screens displaying various metrics and threat alerts. Her walls are adorned with certifications, diplomas, and a whiteboard filled with hastily sketched diagrams from the last risk management strategy meeting. She's been a CISO for a few years now and has steered her company through countless security threats, but the challenges she faces now are unlike any before.
She juggles compliance with GDPR, CCPA, and the U.S. CLOUD Act. Her company has also ventured into using facial recognition for building security and multi-factor authentication, sparking internal debates on privacy and ethics. Although cutting-edge technologies like machine learning assist her in threat detection and response, the constantly morphing nature of cybersecurity threats makes her job a high-stakes chess game that never ends. Artificial intelligence is helping some, but the team needs to be trained, and the tools and processes need to be updated to integrate the technology in a meaningful and productive manner. So, while there are benefits to using AI, the costs to reap them are still high.
The Breach Incident
As if summoned by her thoughts, an ear-piercing alert signals a breach in one of the multi-cloud ecosystems they rely on. The incident response team, scattered across different time zones due to global expansion and remote working arrangements, assembles virtually. She leads the team through the initial steps to contain the breach while ensuring minimal service disruption. There's tension in her voice; they have 72 hours to disclose the breach under GDPR rules and to notify the U.S. Attorney General within 4 days under the SEC’s new cyber disclosure rule. Still, every minute counts in mitigating damage and gathering evidence.
The breach involves a vulnerability in an API that was overlooked, despite her nagging worry about such weak links. To make matters more complicated, initial analysis suggests that compromised data includes biometric identifiers from their facial recognition system. The potential legal and ethical ramifications are immediate and severe. Emma spends the night in crisis management mode, coordinating with legal teams, ensuring compliance with multiple regulations, and communicating transparently with affected stakeholders with the help of trusted marketing and PR staff dedicated to such activities.
While her team eventually managed to patch the vulnerability and secure the network, the incident left her with several lessons learned and an updated list of action items that just got more complicated. Though exhausting, Emma takes it as a part of her evolving role that goes beyond technology into the realm of trust, ethics, and compliance.
Harper's Future Landscape: The CISO of 2033
A decade later, Harper starts her day in a somewhat different, if not calmer, environment. AI has evolved to serve as her virtual co-CISO, capable of autonomously handling routine threat detection and response, integrated in a way that there's little to no slow-down due to human interaction for validation or error correction purposes. However, it's not the AI that eases her burden the most; the systemic changes and technological innovations over the past ten years have made her life different from Emma's.
Global data privacy norms have harmonized to some extent, aided by international treaties. Her company still operates in a hybrid multi-cloud ecosystem, but a universal cloud interface—standardized by global policy agreements—helps her manage data flows effortlessly while ensuring compliance with regional data sovereignty laws.
APIs have matured, too, with universally accepted security standards baked into them, giving developers the opportunity for creative freedom with security and privacy controls built into the engineering process and downstream in the delivery and operations. Thanks to advances in quantum encryption that add an almost impenetrable layer of security, they're no longer the Achilles heel they used to be. Has the risk been eliminated? Can it ever be? Perhaps we'll see soon.
IoT has grown ubiquitous, but so have the security protocols and interfaces governing them. In fact, most IoT devices now come with self-healing security features, minimizing the risks of network infiltration.
Biometric identification has evolved past facial recognition and fingerprint scans. Employees now have the option of using embedded chips, not just for secure building access but also for personalized activities such as unlocking their autonomous vehicles and health monitoring. These chips are governed by blockchain technology—yes, this technology is still doing its thing in the form of what this generation of CISOs know as Web 4. This ensures that data sovereignty rests with the individual, not the corporation or any government.
However, the most profound change Harper observes is the social paradigm shift. Digital ethics is now a subject taught in schools, and there's a societal consensus on the responsible use of technology. Corporate ethics committees, often including a bioethicist, are part of decision-making processes when new technologies are adopted.
The Quantum-Resistant Attack
While a lot has changed, things still aren't perfect. Harper's AI co-CISO flags an abnormality—a potentially quantum-resistant cyberattack. Even in 2033, quantum attacks are the stuff of nightmares, capable of breaking the most advanced cryptographic techniques. The AI assistant acts swiftly, invoking quantum-safe algorithms to isolate and counter the attack.
Within minutes, the virtual crisis room fills with avatars of her cross-functional team, including the AI ethics advisor. Harper directs the team to ensure data integrity while maintaining quantum-safe countermeasures. Her AI co-CISO updates her in real time, reassuring her that no data has been compromised.
Unlike Emma's frantic 72-hour clock, Harper simply notifies a global AI-regulated compliance network, which automates the incident disclosure process according to international laws. No fines, no frantic calls to the legal department, and no damage to the company’s reputation. A lot of the stigma associated with security breaches have been overcome, probably because there is also much more transparency in the security policies and controls organizations are employing these days.
What was often a serious all-hands-on-deck event for other CISOs 10 years ago has turned into a non-issue within most companies. The incident simply becomes another data point that feeds into their evolving AI, making the system smarter and more resilient. An ethical review follows, not as a reactive measure, but as a standard procedure to assess the responsible use of AI and other technologies in resolving the incident.
The Constant Evolution: Security, Ethics, and Leadership Across Time
Emma's and Harper's experiences reflect their times' distinct challenges and varying landscapes. Emma's breach incident encapsulates her daily struggle: a perpetual race against time, trying to secure an ever-complex network with a patchwork of regulations and ethical dilemmas. While severe, Harper's brush with a quantum-resistant attack is handled with a sense of control and assurance, thanks to advances in technology, legislation, and societal norms.
Both CISOs serve as stewards of not just information but also of ethics, trust, and compliance. Despite its advanced tools, Emma operates in an environment that is riddled with loopholes and gray areas. Harper's world is much more clear, but far more expansive, reaching into ethical dimensions that Emma could only dream of.
As Harper ponders the next decade, she knows that new challenges await. The role of a CISO is ever-evolving, shaped by continuous technological innovations and a society that learns from its past. Just as Harper benefited from the lessons learned during Emma’s time, so too will future CISOs look back at Harper's era as they navigate their own unique challenges. For CISOs like Emma and Harper, their stories serve as landmarks on a road that is continually under construction, each dealing with their own set of challenges shaped by the contexts they find themselves in.
The future isn't a destination but an ongoing journey. For CISOs like Emma and Harper, it's a journey marked by continuous learning, ethical foresight, and the courage to adapt and evolve.
How will your role as a CISO evolve? Will you let technology and ethics lead you? Or, will you help define the future by leading the technology and ethics you want in place for your role as it evolves? Both types of CISOs will exist. One thing is for certain, the role will always be filled with excitement.
This article represents the results of an interactive collaboration between Human Cognition and Artificial Intelligence.
Sincerely, Sean Martin and TAPE3
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Sean Martin is the host of the Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast, part of the ITSPmagazine Podcast Network—which he co-founded with his good friend Marco Ciappelli—where you may just find some of these topics being discussed.
Or, visit Sean’s personal website.
