Palo Alto Networks CIO Meerah Rajavel wants to thwart adversarial use of AI, secure internally developed AI applications and use AI to increase organizational productivity.
The Silicon Valley-based platform security giant uses AI to boost developer productivity, enhance tech support, power HR and IT assistants and operate sales agents embedded in Slack, with deployments designed to drive measurable ROI and operational efficiency. Rajavel said legacy formats and workflows in the software development process should be rethought to take full advantage of AI’s potential (see: AI and Cybersecurity: Transforming Digital Defense).
“The AI tech stack is different,” Rajavel said. “Now, you need to think about how you’re securing your LLM. Now you need to think about how your vector DB is getting secured. You need to think about during runtime and how your prompt is not getting injected. So there is two constructs you need to think about. One is all around the security posture management of the AI itself.”
In this audio interview with Information Security Media Group, Rajavel also discussed:
- Deployment of AI to enhance engineering and sales productivity;
- How to manage the risk of unauthorized AI use by employees; and
- Policy and process changes required to optimize AI effectiveness.
Rajavel is responsible for Palo Alto Networks’ global information technology functions, driving a comprehensive strategy to scale and rapidly deliver innovative solutions for worldwide teams. Prior to Palo Alto Networks, she served as CIO at Citrix and held leadership roles at McAfee, Forcepoint, Cisco and Infosys.