December 12, 2025

AI is no longer just a buzzword. It's become an essential tool for security teams, such as when leveraged to comb through alerts, make sense of logs and automate routine tasks. When used correctly, AI gives security engineers more time to think, plan and strike back. However, if used carelessly, it can open brand new avenues for hackers to exploit the same systems we are trying to protect.

How AI Helps Defenders

AI is fantastic at devouring vast amounts of data and identifying what is important. Think of a busy help desk or a bustling security operations center (SOC). Alerts pour in every second, and while most of them are white noise, AI can sort out the relevant ones and link useful information, such as who owns the device and what changes have been made recently. It can then boil it all down to a neat summary, while analysts and engineers focus on other tasks.

AI can reduce the time spent on research by summarizing lengthy reports into consumable briefs or presentations. It can also highlight problematic code before it lands in production. AI’s goal is not to eliminate human decision-making, but to provide us with clear-cut information needed to make better decisions faster.
 

Discover more strategies to innovate securely in Optiv’s secure AI field guide.

The New Risks AI Introduces

AI also creates problems we did not have before. One of the most significant ones is prompt injection, which happens when an attacker writes a message that tricks the AI into ignoring its rules. If the AI can do things like read files, post chat messages, create tickets or call a cloud API, a threat actor can craft a bad message that can turn into a malicious remote code execution (RCE). The AI becomes a helper for the attacker.

To function effectively, AI often requires pieces of information from a ticket, a chat session or a log, which may contain sensitive information or personal data. This is a problem when many AI systems, by default, store the complete question and answers in memory. The AI’s “helpful memory” essentially turns into a major leak. 

AI can also become overly confident and completely wrong – a phenomenon known as hallucination. When conversing with AI, these hallucinations might be a minor annoyance, but in an automated script, they could be disastrous. A wrong answer could result in opening a firewall rule, shutting down the wrong server or even closing a real incident before someone reviews it. These are just a few of the challenges that AI brings about.

Download Optiv’s e-book to learn more about how AI tools pose a threat. 

How to Use AI Safely

Safely using AI is about having good habits. Put policies into place before implementing action. Start with a data agreement that outlines what can and cannot be included in the prompts. Provide AI with the minimum tools and permissions it needs. Turn off all unnecessary session/chat logging. Assume that anything you do will be logged and viewable later. If a proposed action changes the authentication, network or production systems, then have a human verify it. Finally, verify the output from the AI, treating it like a message from someone you don’t fully trust. Make sure the answer is in the correct format and adheres to your guidelines.

Conclusion

AI will not replace your security team. It should replace the busy work so they can focus their expertise in more valuable areas. When you pair AI with guardrails, you get the good parts: a calmer queue, quicker containment and clearer summaries. Treat AI answers as untrusted until proven safe. Keep permissions small and short-lived. Protect data at the source. 

Do these simple things, and you will benefit from the increased speed and production without giving attackers a new attack path to your systems.

Learn more about building, governing and scaling your AI securely here.