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Discover how Reco can help protect your organization from the risks of shadow AI tools and apps. Learn more about the solution and its features at reco.ai.
Shadow AI refers to the unauthorized use of AI tools and copilots by organizations, putting company data at risk. The challenge in detecting shadow AI is that these tools often embed themselves in approved business applications via AI assistants, copilots, and agents. Standalone AI tools tied to personal accounts can also be used for work-related tasks, increasing the risk of data leaks. Shadow AI tools expand the attack surface through unmonitored integrations and APIs, with significant risks of exploitation and lateral movement within the network. The risks associated with shadow AI are even greater than traditional shadow apps due to their ability to ingest and share information.
The world of cybersecurity is constantly evolving, with new challenges emerging to keep security teams on their toes. One such challenge that has gained significant attention in recent times is the issue of shadow AI tools. In this article, we will delve into the concept of shadow AI, its risks, and how Reco, a SaaS security solution, helps detect and mitigate these threats.
Shadow AI refers to the unauthorized use of AI tools and copilots by organizations. This can range from developers using ChatGPT to assist with writing code, salespeople downloading AI-powered meeting transcription tools, or customer support persons using Agentic AI to automate tasks without going through the proper channels. When these tools are used without IT or security teams' knowledge, they often lack sufficient security controls, putting company data at risk.
One of the main challenges in detecting shadow AI is that these tools often embed themselves in approved business applications via AI assistants, copilots, and agents. This makes them even trickier to discover than traditional shadow IT. While traditional shadow apps can be identified through network monitoring methodologies that scan for unauthorized connections based on IP addresses and domain names, AI assistants can fly under the radar because they share an IP address or domain with approved applications.
Another challenge is that some employees utilize standalone AI tools tied to personal accounts, like personal ChatGPT instances, to assist with work-related tasks. While these AI apps aren't connected to corporate infrastructure, there's still a risk that employees will input sensitive data into them, increasing the chance of data leaks.
The risks associated with shadow AI are significant. Like any shadow app, shadow AI tools expand the attack surface through unmonitored integrations and APIs. They're often set up with weak configurations like excessive permissions, duplicative passwords, and no multi-factor identification (MFA), increasing the risk of exploitation and lateral movement within the network.
However, shadow AI tools are even more dangerous than traditional shadow apps because of their ability to ingest and share information. One study found that as many as 15% of employees post company data in AI tools. Since GenAI models learn from every interaction, there's a risk they will expose sensitive information to unauthorized users or spread misinformation.
To combat these risks, Reco, a SaaS security solution, has been developed. Reco uses AI-based graph technology to discover and catalog shadow AI in SaaS. The solution begins by integrating with an organization's Active Directory, such as Microsoft Azure AD or Okta, to gather a list of approved and known applications and AI tools.
Next, Reco analyzes email metadata from platforms like Gmail and Outlook to detect communications with unauthorized tools. It filters out internal apps and marketing emails and focuses on usage indicators, like account confirmations and download requests. The solution then uses a proprietary, fine-tuned model based on interactions and NLP to consolidate and clean the list, matching identities with corresponding apps and AI tools.
Reco creates a list of all SaaS apps and AI tools being used, who is using them, and what authentication mechanisms are being used. This information is compared against a list of known applications and AI tools to produce a list of unauthorized applications and shadow AI tools.
After Reco produces the list of shadow AI tools and apps, it can answer questions like which SaaS apps are currently in use across the organization? Of these apps, which are utilizing AI assistants and copilots? Reco inventories all applications running in the environment that are associated with business email. It creates a list of who is using what, how they're authenticating, and produces activity logs to understand their behavior.
Reco can alert on suspicious activity, like excessive downloads, external file sharing, or permission changes. It also provides a Vendor Risk Score so security teams can prioritize riskier apps. Reco shows the app-to-app connections discovered within the environment, including integrations between SaaS applications and AI tools. It provides visibility into critical exposure gaps that could lead to a breach.
Reco unifies identities across all SaaS applications, enabling centralized management of permissions and roles. By analyzing user permission levels and behaviors within the SaaS ecosystem, Reco provides real-time alerts for unusual activities that may indicate malicious intent.
The solution also delivers posturing management and compliance, identifying misconfigurations that may put data at risk, such as over-permissioned users, publicly exposed files, stale accounts, and weak authentication mechanisms. The 'How to Fix' feature gives instructions on how to clean up risks. Reco continuously monitors for configuration changes that could lead to data exposure via SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM).
In conclusion, the issue of shadow AI is a significant challenge for SaaS providers, with potential risks to company data and security. Reco, a SaaS security solution, helps detect and mitigate these threats by using AI-based graph technology to discover and catalog shadow AI in SaaS.
Discover how Reco can help protect your organization from the risks of shadow AI tools and apps. Learn more about the solution and its features at reco.ai.
Related Information:
https://thehackernews.com/2025/01/product-review-how-reco-discovers.html
Published: Thu Jan 9 09:54:10 2025 by llama3.2 3B Q4_K_M
