S29 Ep3: The AI-Quantum Revolution: Today, tomorrow and the future

Today’s episode is the first of three conversations with ISF CEO Steve Durbin around the coming impact of technological development on society and business. We know that new technologies have always tested organisations, and technological innovation and integration into our lives and enterprises — it’s only accelerating. We offer an analysis of potential future scenarios, as well as practical tips for what organisations can do now to prepare. Key Takeaways: 1. Organisations must prioritise supporting smaller entities in keeping up with the fast pace of technological change. 2. Security can deliver competitive advantage, but implementation challenges persist, and security risks can become low priority in a fast-paced tech landscape. 3. Organisations face pressure to modernise technology while managing legacy systems and regulatory demands. 4. CEOs must balance competing priorities, including ESG initiatives, employee expectations, and shareholder demands. 5. Political developments may force organisations to respect local restrictions on technologies. 6. Organisations are advised to protect crown jewels, ensure data protection, and monitor supply chain partners. 7. Organisations must prepare for quantum-proof encryption and socialise policies for AI use. Tune in to hear more about: 1. The impact of technological innovation on business and society, with a focus on adoption challenges and timing (0:00) 2. Security risks in technology innovation and adoption (1:29) 3. The impact of quantum computing on cybersecurity and the need for organizations to prioritize legacy technology updates (6:59) 4. Volatility, uncertainty, and technological change in the security industry (12:45) 5. How technology innovations can disrupt and improve organizations (18:22) 6. Managing innovation in a rapidly challenging digital landscape (20:40) 7. Limitations of accessing powerful technologies due to restrictions, threats, and security concerns (26:12) 8. Emerging threats and risks in technology, including quantum computing, AI, and legacy systems (32:18) Standout Quotes: 1. “Organisations could certainly find themselves cut off from the supercharged processing power, because it may be developed by a government for its own ends and restricted, expensive, all of those sorts of things, so that it effectively becomes unavailable. And I think organisations, despite all of that, are going to have to operate in the shadow of this massive computing power shift when it comes about as the pace of change accelerates, innovations proliferate, traditional life cycles of technology shorten.” - Steve Durbin 2. “If we're going to have smaller organisations within our overall ecosystem, we need to be just sparing a bit of a thought for how they might be keeping up with such a fast pace of change and how we're going to support them in continuing to meet some of the standards and bars that were setting, so that everybody benefits, frankly.” - Steve Durbin 3. “So the world is also reshaping, as we're introducing AI into what we're doing. And so again, I think that the challenge from the business perspective, from the security perspective, from the technology perspective, is really about: how do you focus on what is important for your organisation, for your people, for your customers, in a world that is constantly now changing? And the speed of that change is only going to get faster. And we haven't seen that before.” - Steve Durbin 4. “So you're in a much better position, if you can control your innovations irrespective of what's going on. But you're never going to be able, I think, to divorce yourself completely from the market, because you operate in the market. And so the speed at which the market is evolving is going to, I think, determine — to a certain extent, anyway — your success in managing your own innovation, so you may need to be innovating more quickly than you're comfortable, just in order to try to keep up.” - Steve Durbin Mentioned in this episode: ISF Analyst Insight Podcast ISF Podcast: Data Dilemmas: Outsmarting the perils of AI Read the transcript of this episode Subscribe to the ISF Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts Connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter From the Information Security Forum, the leading authority on cyber, information security, and risk management.