Many IT leaders could be worried about the risks posed to their SaaS security posture by large language model (LLM) technologies such as ChatGPT, Google’s Bard and other so-called “generative AI” offerings.
That’s according to a poll of 1000 IT leaders by technology intelligence specialist Snow Software, which reported that data suggests many could be “grappling with anxiety” about LLMs despite continued confidence in their overall security posture on SaaS.
Steve Tait, chief technology officer at Snow, suggested “mounting security concerns” around the use of LLMs alongside SaaS complexities and sprawl.
“IT leaders have to walk a fine line between minimising risk and creating efficiencies while still realising growth,” Tait said in the announcement.
“Generative AI [applications] have made the need for IT visibility even more pressing. IT leaders need to govern the unknown as effectively as their approved vendors.”
According to Snow, 96% of respondents indicated they were still “confident” or “very confident” in their organisations’ SaaS security measures — even though many cited managing SaaS security as a leading challenge for IT leaders.
IT leaders must now factor the effects of generative AI, such as ChatGPT, into their overall SaaS security approach, the vendor explained.
“Twenty-three percent of respondents said generative AI applications are the most concerning SaaS security issue,” according to the announcement.
“When asked how IT leaders would feel if a SaaS vendor used generative AI without their knowledge, more than half (57%) said they would feel alarmed and would require more information from the vendor.”
Sixty-one percent of leaders in the sample indicated that they had extensive data governance and security tools to manage data shared with SaaS applications — but at the same time, 40% of respondents “expressed concern” over data protection or privacy.
The news followed the launch of Snow’s fourth-generation SaaS management platform.
According to the vendor, Snow SaaS Management offers a “comprehensive” discovery engine, enabling management of applications from a single view. The idea is that the platform can help identify cost savings, redundant applications, manage complex hybrid applications and so on.
