Amazon Web Services is leveraging artificial intelligence to improve its security capabilities, according to Chief Security Officer Stephen Schmidt. By employing large language models, AWS is converting real-time attack data into actionable security intelligence, particularly for application security reviews and incident response.

Speaking at the AWS Summit on Tuesday, Schmidt explained that AI facilitates advanced security measures previously unattainable. He cited the example of new digital sensors being attacked shortly after deployment, stating that AI allows engineers to analyze this data more effectively.

Schmidt stated, “What we can do with AI is allow engineers to ask questions about what’s going on with that data much more easily than they could otherwise, and they can say things like ‘Find me all of the examples of situations where someone tried to break into this particular version of this particular database, and came from IP addresses that are associated with the VPNs that are normally used by this particular threat actor.’ You can’t do that otherwise, and the tooling allows them to really dig into things much more deeply.”

AI also enhances security assessments by standardizing processes and aiding less experienced engineers. Training large language models on prior security reviews allows for the transfer of knowledge from senior professionals to junior personnel, thereby raising the overall security standard.

Schmidt noted, “A junior engineer may not have all the knowledge, the background, the experience of the more senior engineers. By training our large language models internally on the prior security reviews, it allows us to apply the knowledge and learning that our more senior staff have embodied in the documents that we all own, trained on, to our more junior staff. So it really raises the bar on the absolute level of security.”

Addressing cybersecurity personnel shortages, Schmidt said that AI can automate routine tasks, freeing up security staff to concentrate on more complex issues. He emphasized, however, that human oversight remains crucial because AI systems are non-deterministic and can produce varying results from the same query.

“We look at it this way, if you’re just asking a question and getting an answer, that’s one set of scrutiny that you have to give a system,” he said. “But if you’re going to take an action to block something, to prevent something from occurring, you’ve got to be really sure it’s correct. So there has to be that skilled person at the end of the AI-use process, saying, ‘Yes, this is the right thing to do at this point in time with this context.’”

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Schmidt dismissed concerns that AI will replace junior-level positions, arguing that human involvement is still necessary in security. He believes that AI will accelerate skill development among security professionals. According to Schmidt, concerns about AI replacing junior engineers are unfounded, saying that AI can help junior engineers get up to speed and learn from experts more quickly.

“I don’t think it’s going to happen,” he said of AI replacing human-led security work. “The thing about security that’s both great and difficult is you’re never done, and it’s never perfect. So we always have the ability to raise the bar across things, and by using tooling that allows us to get those junior engineers up to speed more quickly and to learn more about why senior engineers make decisions. It means we’ve got this middle ground of staff who are really good, much more quickly than we would otherwise.”

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