Zscaler CISO talks about cybersecurity challenges

Of the many insights revealed at this week's RSA conference, one is perhaps the clearest. It's that we can hardly move without someone talking about artificial intelligence. It's affecting the way people view security.

According to Sam Curry (pictured), global vice president and chief information security officer at Zscaler Inc., the threat vectors have remained the same so far, but there has been an increase in efficiency and effectiveness. The underlying idea is that the toolkit's performance has improved. He pointed out that the offense is faster than the defense.

“That's been true for a long time, but it seems to be rapidly changing and accelerating,” Curry said. “People seem to be waiting for the shoe to drop, that's how I would describe it.”

Sam Curry, global VP and CISO at Zscaler, will discuss the latest trends in security at this week's RSA Conference.

Curry was joined by theCUBE Research's Principal Analyst Dave Vellante and Principal Analyst Shelly Kramer during an exclusive broadcast on SiliconANGLE Media's live streaming studio, theCUBE, at the RSA Conference. They discussed the current landscape of cybersecurity threats and the urgent need for strategic responses to emerging challenges. (*Disclosure below.)

Ransomware and regulatory pressures will shape the cybersecurity landscape

In addition to talk about AI, Curry said this year's RSA conference brought a lot of discussion about what's happening around the world geopolitically. Recently Zscaler released a report stating that phishing is increasing by nearly 60%.

The threat surface is clearly expanding. According to Curry, there are two big changes, the first of which is ransomware.

“You can't ignore it. It's been on everyone's lips for a long time, but it hasn't gone away and it's benefited the bad guys a lot. I think there was a bit of a hiatus because of the war,” he said. Ta. “We have seen a polarization of the cybercrime community around Ukraine and Russia for some time, and they continue to increase their effectiveness. Automation seems to be the name of the game, and now especially artificial Application of intelligence is becoming important.”

Another factor, Curry said, is regulatory pressure. That hasn't changed, he noted.

“In Europe, NIS2 and DORA are emerging. We've seen GDPR impact other privacy regulations. We've seen SEC take another step forward in 2023. But where is this going?'' he said. “The Biden administration has come out with safety guidance on AI and is now trying to use liability to change corporate incentives. That was just yesterday. Let's see how that plays out in practice.”

Below is the full video interview, part of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE Research's coverage of the RSA conference.

(*Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner of the RSA Conference. Neither RSA Conference LLC, the sponsor of theCUBE's event coverage, nor any other sponsors have editorial control over theCUBE or SiliconANGLE content.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE