Optiv Exec: New AI Services Aim To Make Security An ‘Accelerant’ For GenAI

The cybersecurity powerhouse this week debuted its new cross-practice offering that seeks to help meet the massive need for securing the use of GenAI, Optiv’s Randy Lariar says.

With the debut of its new AI Security Services offering this week, cybersecurity powerhouse Optiv is looking to help organizations adopt GenAI at a faster rate while avoiding the numerous security risks associated with the technology, an Optiv executive told CRN.

The new cross-practice offering from Denver-based Optiv, No. 25 on CRN’s Solution Provider 500 for 2024, covers a range of needs for adoption of GenAI from education and strategy to governance and application security, according to the company.

The service tackles the variety of potential GenAI use cases ranging from the secure usage of the new tools themselves by employees to the deployment of large language models for adding functionality to apps, Optiv said.

In all cases, there are potential security and business risks that Optiv’s cybersecurity expertise can help with mitigating, according to Randy Lariar, big data and analytics practice director at Optiv.

“When you want to innovate and you want to move fast, security is very often in the business of ‘no’—for some very good reasons,” Lariar said. However, “if it’s done properly, it’s an accelerant.”

Optiv’s approach is to guide customers in AI strategy, policy formulation and risk management, which includes helping organizations to develop their AI literacy while also evaluating readiness through assessments that identify missing controls, according to Lariar.

When it comes to governance, Optiv’s framework covers areas such as privacy and data loss prevention to provide better control over AI data exposure risks, he said.

And in terms of securing the AI models themselves, Optiv’s services can include threat modeling, penetration testing and secure development practices that are tailored for AI-enabled apps, Lariar said.

All in all, “we give clear guardrails, we help people understand the risks and can give design patterns and guidance on the right way to do things,” he said.

For countless organizations today, “having strong security is an important enabler of your own market value and your materiality in the market,” Lariar said.

Focusing on accelerating the adoption of AI is also a major opportunity for Optiv, which has leveraged its strong track record in the security space while spending more than a year building out its AI Security Services offering, he said.

“This is really a space where I’m not seeing the same focus on security from other firms,” Lariar said. “It’s more of, ‘We want to do everything in AI.’ And that’s great—there’s a very important need for that. But I’m hoping that there’s a real opportunity for us to be leaders in the AI security space.”