Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning , Events , Network Detection & Response
Going All-In With AI at Zscaler to Raise the Bar in Cyber
Jay Chaudhry, CEO of Zscaler, on Company's AI Commitment, Solutions
Zscaler is going all in in its investment in AI to bolster its customers' ability to stay ahead of threat actors, including the company's recent purchase of Avalor and its hiring of a chief AI officer, said Jay Chaudhry, the company's founder, chairman and CEO.
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"Good AI starts with data. While there's a lot of general purpose data sitting out there for Chat GPT and the world, for cyber you need customer-specific data to see if a customer is being targeted, attacked or if reconnaissance is being done," he said.
"We have that data because of a large number of customers, which includes over 40% of Fortune 500 companies," he said. "Once you have all that data, how do you make sense of it? There are large language models, small language models - our model doesn't need to be the largest - it is value focused on cyber risk."
Avalor is focused on creating what the company is calling "the Zscaler data fabric," which uses customer logs to create models for clients to take proactive actions linked to the risks they face, Chaudhry said.
And on top of that, by adding a chief AI office to Zscaler's ranks, "we are sending a message that we are making investments - that it is a business unit level commitment. We will be adding all the resources needed to make it happen. "
In this video interview with Information Security Media Group at RSA Conference 2024, Chaudhry also discussed:
- Why VPNs and firewalls "need to be retired";
- How the Biden administration's policies and requirements have changed the perception of zero trust;
- Protecting the Department of Defense and other major federal government agencies.
Chaudhry founded a series of successful companies, including AirDefense, CipherTrust, CoreHarbor and SecureIT. He has more than 25 years of IT industry expertise spanning engineering, sales, marketing and management at leading organizations, including IBM, NCR and Unisys.
