In 2023, the adoption of Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative AI became a huge tech trend that is now poised to significantly transform the data security landscape in 2024. As companies transition generative AI projects from experimental pilot to production, the concerns regarding data security become more pressing. This is particularly true for LLMs that are trained on sensitive data and could pose a threat through prompt injections attacks, thereby exposing confidential information.

With these developments, there’s a growing focus on securing LLMs in production, which necessitates an increased organizational emphasis on data discovery, classification, and access governance. This is crucial for creating transparency into the data that feeds the language model and ensuring that authorized access is maintained.

Aside from the advancements in AI and data security, there are several other trends that are anticipated to have a significant impact in 2024.

The first trend is the consolidation of data security tooling. As organizations have increasingly moved to the cloud, their infrastructure has become more fragmented, especially with the rise of multi-cloud and containerization as standard practices. Data storage and processing have become scattered, constantly changing, and handled by multiple vendors and numerous tools. As a result, businesses have had to invest in a wide range of security tools, including DLP for legacy systems, CSP-native solutions, and compliance tools. However, this trend is now shifting towards consolidation as organizations seek a single platform for unified policy and risk management across multi-cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments. Security solutions are evolving from point solutions towards more comprehensive platforms that protect data, regardless of where it is stored and in transit.

Another trend that is expected to continue in 2024 is the maturation of compliance programs. Organizations are realizing that compliance needs to be more than just a check-the-box exercise. With regulators becoming more proactive in addressing companies’ use and protection of customer data, compliance has become a strategic priority. As a result, businesses will invest more in programs that enable them to map their existing data assets to compliance requirements and identify compliance violations in real-time, rather than waiting for audits or post-breach discoveries.

The continued acceleration of cloud adoption, evolving tactics of malicious actors, and increasingly stringent data privacy regulations have set the stage for a challenging data security landscape in 2024. As a result, security leaders and the tools and processes they use are expected to evolve in response to these challenges. With the transformation of LLMs and generative AI, combined with these upcoming trends, 2024 is set to be a year of significant change and development in the field of data security.

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