The amount of data in modern systems has skyrocketed beyond what traditional security tools can handle. As organizations embrace AI to boost productivity, security teams face mounting pressure to protect sensitive information across sprawling cloud infrastructures and applications. The velocity of data creation, combined with complex multicloud environments, makes traditional security approaches insufficient. AI systems introduce additional complexity—they require broad data access to function effectively, yet this same access creates new attack vectors. Security teams must now secure not just the data itself, but also how AI systems interact with and process that data.
The Codefinger attack from earlier this year demonstrates this risk. This ransomware attack targeted users of Amazon S3 buckets, encrypting files using AWS’s own server-side encryption capabilities. The attackers exploited AWS’s built-in features, demanding payment in exchange for decryption keys. This attack highlighted a critical weakness – attackers weaponizing cloud platforms’ native security features against their users.