The adoption of generative AI raises significant security concerns for organisations in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, according to further results from a Forrester Consulting study conducted on behalf of Tenable.
The commissioned study was conducted in October 2023 and surveyed 826 IT and cybersecurity leaders globally, including 207 respondents from the APAC region.
Results reveal that 41% of APAC organisations view generative AI as a bigger security threat than an opportunity. Additionally, more than half (51%) believe that generative AI will increase the sophistication of phishing attacks.
In APAC, 56% of respondents were concerned about the potential for misuse of generative AI, a concern that is more pronounced in APAC compared to the global average of 50%.
Moreover, more than a third (35%) of APAC organisations agree that generative AI has the potential to significantly expand their attack surface, a figure higher than the global average of 32%.
The study further unveiled that only 10% of APAC respondents were extremely confident in their organisation’s ability to leverage generative AI to improve cybersecurity.
This lack of confidence was particularly pronounced with confidence levels in the region being the lowest amongst their counterparts in other regions and being the global average of 17%.
According to Tenable, this underscores the broader challenges APAC firms face in implementing and governing AI technologies effectively.
Despite this lack of confidence, APAC respondents were still actively seeking to use AI for various cybersecurity objectives.
The top three uses as indicated by respondents currently include cybersecurity training and upskilling (51%), automated threat detection (47%) and automated reporting/alerting (48%). These applications highlight the region’s strategic approach to addressing skill shortages and operational demands through AI.
Nigel Ng, Tenable SVP in APAC and Japan, said that while generative AI distills insights from vulnerability management, cloud security, web application, and identity exposures — enabling organisations to comprehend their risk from the perspective of an attacker — it also introduces new complexities and risks that organisations must manage diligently.
“By leveraging generative AI for threat detection and automated responses, security teams can create a more resilient cybersecurity infrastructure that is better equipped to handle the evolving threat landscape,” said Ng.
