Simply earlier than ChatGPT’s first birthday (Nov. 30), a report from Fastly highlights the truth that many organizations view generative AI as a rising cybersecurity risk. Knowledge breaches and information loss (40%), identity-based threats similar to malware and phishing (38%), and generative AI (29%) are seen as the most important cybersecurity threats over the subsequent 12 months, based on this yr’s Fastly World Safety Analysis report, a survey of 1,484 IT choice makers in organizations with greater than 500 workers world wide.

Even with generative AI making the listing of high three cybersecurity threats over the subsequent 12 months, it was clear from the report that generative AI is seen as each a optimistic and detrimental growth. Respondents say generative AI would improve productiveness (43%), make sure the enterprise is extra protected in opposition to cyber threats (42%), and guarantee workers are educated in cybersecurity fundamentals (36%). On the detrimental facet, there are fears that generative AI will open new avenues for assault (67%) and put companies at larger danger of assaults (58%).

Nearly half, or 46%, are involved that their safety groups shouldn’t have expertise with new and rising applied sciences and threats similar to generative AI. To mitigate these dangers, organizations are centered on growing and implementing a company-wide coverage (34%) and coaching workers to acknowledge related dangers (34%).

The IT choice makers — two-thirds of them straight make or affect cybersecurity choices—within the survey appear to anticipate the identical sorts of threats that impacted their organizations over the previous yr will proceed to bedevil them over the subsequent 12 months, based on the report. These choice makers stuffed quite a lot of roles, together with cloud operations, IT administration, utility architect and safety operations analyst.

When respondents have been requested about components driving cybersecurity threats to the enterprise over the previous 12 months, they listed an more and more refined risk panorama (35%), assaults concentrating on distant staff (33%), lack of inside schooling round cybersecurity finest practices (32%), and emergence of generative AI applied sciences (32%). The order modified, however the high three components remained the identical when respondents have been requested what would drive cybersecurity threats to the enterprise over the subsequent 12 months: more and more refined risk panorama (37%), emergence of generative AI expertise (35%), and cyberattacks concentrating on distant staff (33%).

There have been some variations in notion throughout business sectors, similar to the truth that respondents within the authorities sector (40%) have been nearly twice as more likely to cite assaults in opposition to distant staff as the primary driver of cybersecurity threats over the previous yr than these within the schooling sector (22%). When looking forward to the subsequent 12 months, respondents in transportation (40%) have been extra involved about cyber assaults on distant staff than these in authorities (19%).