Cyera Taps Microsoft OpenAI Service to Improve Data Security

Cyera this week revealed it integrated its namesake data security platform with the Microsoft Azure OpenAI cloud service to enable organizations to apply cybersecurity, privacy and compliance policy more consistently.

Ari Weil, vice president of marketing for Cyera, said the integration would enable cybersecurity teams to employ a natural language interface to invoke Microsoft generative artificial intelligence (AI) to match data stores, data classes and identify best practices.

Cyera already makes use of large language models (LLMs) that enable it to apply generative AI capabilities and machine learning algorithms to the metadata it scans. Proprietary probes identify roles and data access permissions along with its origins. The Cyera platform then applies the correct security, privacy and compliance policies to remediate potential risks to the business. The platform can identify misconfigurations, recommend specific access controls and generate new policies for data access governance without violating compliance policies, said Weil.

The integration with Microsoft OpenAI adds a semantic search capability through which organizations can more easily identify issues based on summaries of compliance regulations, for example.

Most organizations today are overwhelmed by the number of regulations they need to navigate. Generative AI platforms like Microsoft Azure OpenAI make it simpler to navigate requirements using a natural language interface.

It’s still early days as far as enterprise adoption of generative AI is concerned, but there is little doubt these platforms are already widely used. The integration between the Cyera and Microsoft Azure AI platform will streamline compliance workflows and make it simpler to maintain business context, said Weil.

Historically, compliance issues mainly applied to businesses that operated in heavily regulated industries. With the rise of various data privacy requirements, every organization is encountering more regulations. Generative AI platforms promise to make it simpler for business executives to better understand those requirements without the aid of a lawyer or some other regulatory specialist.

The Cyera platform, meanwhile, addresses fundamental flaws in the way data is managed within many organizations; data is often copied and moved between various classes of repositories with little to no regard for the various regulations that might apply. Cybersecurity and compliance teams that are tasked with minimizing risks to the business traditionally had little to no visibility into where sensitive data lived in applications and repositories. The volume of data that needs to be identified and classified far exceeds the abilities of any organization—at least using manual processes. AI technologies represent a fundamental advance that automates those tasks, noted Weil.

The volume of data organizations need to securely manage will only increase, in part because AI platforms make it simpler to create data. It’s not going to be feasible for organizations to effectively manage that volume of data at scale without relying on AI tools and platforms.

In the meantime, cybersecurity teams need to have some forthright conversations with business leaders that are increasingly investing in tools to create data without appreciating all the downstream implications.

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Michael Vizard

Mike Vizard is a seasoned IT journalist with over 25 years of experience. He also contributed to IT Business Edge, Channel Insider, Baseline and a variety of other IT titles. Previously, Vizard was the editorial director for Ziff-Davis Enterprise as well as Editor-in-Chief for CRN and InfoWorld.

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