Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

The AI ecosystem is rapidly changing, and with this growth comes unique challenges in securing the infrastructure and services that support it. In Part 1 of this series, we explored how attackers target the underlying resources that host and run AI applications, such as cloud infrastructure and storage. In this post, we'll look at threats that affect AI-specific resources in supply chains, which are the software and data artifacts that determine how an AI service operates.

APIs operate throughout the digital world to support mobile applications, enable cloud capabilities, power GenAI tools, and conduct invisible operations during every digital interaction. As the growth of API usage accelerates, Akamai’s 2024 API Security Impact Report shows that organizations find it difficult to align their security efforts with the expanding risk domain.

Large Language Models (LLMs) are becoming integral to SaaS products for features like AI chatbots, support agents, and data analysis tools. With that comes a significant privacy risk: if not handled carefully, an LLM can ingest and remix sensitive personal data, potentially exposing private information in unexpected ways. Regulators have taken note – frameworks like GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS now expect AI systems to implement auditable, runtime controls to protect sensitive data.

For many of us, the term “cloud security breach” conjures meticulous attack plans executed by sophisticated criminal syndicates. But in reality, “attacks” can be far more mundane: maybe some forgotten credentials, a few default permissions, or a user whose cleanup to-do list never got done. At the center of these incidents are standing privileges: long-lived access rights originally granted for legitimate tasks.

In today’s hyper-connected world, Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) have become one of the most critical layers in a modern security stack. As businesses shift more operations, data, and user experiences online, web apps and APIs are increasingly under siege – from basic bot scraping to sophisticated logic abuse and zero-day exploits.

We're witnessing a paradigm shift from reactive security tools to proactive, intelligent defenders. AI agents represent the next evolution beyond traditional security systems, fundamentally changing how we approach cybersecurity.