How AI Can Help Level the Playing Field with Blackhawk Network Global CISO Selim Aissi

Enterprise Software Defenders

On the 2nd episode of Enterprise Software Defenders, hosts Evan Reiser and Mike Britton, both executives at Abnormal Security, talk with Selim Aissi, Global CISO at Blackhawk Network. Blackhawk Network provides innovative solutions for global commerce. Leveraging cutting-edge technology, they offer a seamless platform that enables secure and convenient payment transactions, gift card distribution, and loyalty programs. In this conversation, Selim shares how Blackhawk Network is evolving as the perimeter of security moves towards identity, interesting emerging attack vectors, and an optimistic outlook on utilizing AI within cybersecurity.
Quick hits from Selim:
On the perimeter of security moving closer to identity: “The notion of the perimeter as we know it has evolved over the years. There are also other trends that add complexity to this, [including] tne is the massive use of APIs, especially public APIs, but also private APIs versus direct connect for VPN. A lot of information is shared over APIs these days…If there's a good percentage of employees operating out of hostile environments, that's a completely new dynamic that we've been dealing with now for three years. I think those are very important trends.”
On emerging attack vectors: “What really triggered my interest over the past few months is by looking at some of the attacks that are based on extortion, specifically ransomware. The evasion techniques and the security tool defeaters that they have embedded, especially in the first and second payloads of the attack, are definitely some of the best that I've seen in my career.”
On optimism for AI applications in cybersecurity: “I was thinking the other day about the optimum data protection tool that would learn where all of the data stores are, discover everything, all the types of data, do the data tagging, do the data lineage, data tracking, and come up with the best protection methodology. Whether it's de-contexting, tokenization, encryption, whatever method makes sense for that data store because you can't come in with a big hammer and encrypt all of the data. AI can play a huge role in something like that.”
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Enterprise Software Defenders is a show where top security executives share how moves to the cloud have created an evolved threat landscape that requires new tools to protect against cybercrime. Find more great lessons from tech leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/
Enterprise Software Defenders is produced by Josh Meer.