Cloud Security Alliance Paper Addresses Challenges of Implementing Zero Trust in Environments Where Artificial Intelligence (AI)-induced Shadow Access Is Prevalent

Traditional Zero Trust approaches must adapt to the nuances of Generative AI (GenAI) technology to strengthen cybersecurity

RSA Conference (San Francisco) – May 7, 2024 – The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), the world’s leading organization dedicated to defining standards, certifications, and best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment, has issued a new report, Confronting Shadow Access Risks: Considerations for Zero Trust and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Deployments. Authored by CSA’s Identity and Access Management Working Group, the paper examines the intersection of Shadow Access with two of today’s most top-of-mind technologies – Zero Trust and Artificial Intelligence – and underscores the necessity of adapting traditional Zero Trust approaches to the nuances of Generative AI (GenAI) technology to mitigate AI-induced Shadow Access vulnerabilities and strengthen cybersecurity in an evolving landscape.

“The integration of modern Gen AI components like Large Language Models (LLM), Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), and Vector databases introduces non-human entities, posing significant shadow access control risks to enterprise data stored in the cloud. Organizations of all sizes are awakening to the realization that they have to reassess their Zero Trust posture as their once-secure foundations have quietly transformed into vulnerable ones,” said Venkat Raghavan, a lead author of the paper and startup CEO. “The paper provides an overview of access control and Zero Trust issues within the cloud-based AI stack and best practices to ensure a safer cloud AI ecosystem.”

Shadow Access, a growing concern in cloud computing, is often intensified by the complexities stemming from modern technological environments and inadequate access-privilege management. Whereas a growing number of organizations are embracing the principles of Zero Trust, with its philosophy of "Never Trust, Always Verify," they are simultaneously encountering significant challenges in fully implementing it in cloud-native architectures where Shadow Access is prevalent.

“Until all Shadow Access is removed, the Zero Trust end-state can't exist. Therefore, it’s critically important that, as enterprises continue on their cloud security journey, they understand how Shadow Access and Zero Trust are intertwined and how the advent of GenAI and its accompanying tools has exacerbated the problem of Shadow Access," said Ryan Gifford, Research Analyst, Cloud Security Alliance. “As more companies embrace GenAI, the Working Group felt it was important to shed light on the challenges Shadow Access poses to Zero Trust and provide a path to Zero Trust’s successful implementation.”

The paper offers key takeaways such as:

• An overview of Shadow Access, Zero Trust, GenAI, and Large Language Models
• The impacts of Shadow Access on Zero Trust
• How Zero Trust can be leveraged to mitigate Shadow Access

Download Confronting Shadow Access Risks: Considerations for Zero Trust and Artificial Intelligence Deployments.

About Cloud Security Alliance
The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) is the world’s leading organization dedicated to defining and raising awareness of best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment. CSA harnesses the subject matter expertise of industry practitioners, associations, governments, and its corporate and individual members to offer cloud security-specific research, education, training, certification, events, and products. CSA's activities, knowledge, and extensive network benefit the entire community impacted by cloud — from providers and customers to governments, entrepreneurs, and the assurance industry — and provide a forum through which different parties can work together to create and maintain a trusted cloud ecosystem. For further information, visit us at www.cloudsecurityalliance.org, and follow us on Twitter @cloudsa.

Media Contacts
Kristina Rundquist
ZAG Communications for CSA
[email protected]