AI: Keep Your Feet on the Ground

By Paul Kurtz

The stunning video of Neil Armstrong effortlessly jumping in his moon boots comes to mind easily. AI feels somewhat like the excitement of the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1967. The hype was huge, but as we know, it has been a long road. 1972 was the last time man walked on the moon, and most recently, NASA’s latest mission to land an unmanned spacecraft on the moon failed.¹ AI may evolve more quickly, but perhaps we should keep our earthly boots on and remember the basics.

The adoption of AI will come in fits and starts. Aspen Digital’s paper “Envisioning Cyber Futures with AI” reaches beyond the hype and strikes the right cord, framing “good” and “bad” outcomes. For example, the writers defined a “good place,” where AI helps defenders, versus a “bad place,” where AI helps attackers.² Most significantly, the report does not abandon the basics: the need to have a synoptic understanding of the health of computer systems, in particular, logging or capturing computer telemetry to help operators understand operations and data integrity.

The report cautions that the “old rules still apply,” and it is vital not to ignore the basics. The report states, “Good logs are essential to cybersecurity, and the potential for AI-driven exploits and attacks only heighten that. Organizations should improve logging, log review, and log maintenance to maximize the ability to detect novel, AI-generated attacks and comply with legally authorized reviews as necessary (including through the use of AI tools).”³ In short, in the world of AI, logging is essential to ensure data integrity.

Our logging capabilities are best leveraged through Splunk’s platform, which addresses security Ops, ITOps, and DevOps, bringing enterprise resilience. Splunk is excited about AI, but we are keeping our boots on the ground as we partner with customers to leverage AI to improve efficiency while continuing the essentials via Splunk’s platform.

¹The Peregrine rocket successfully launched on Jan 8, 2024, however shortly thereafter a propellant leak scuttled the possibility of landing on the moon
²“Envisioning Cyber Futures with A.I.”, January 2024, Aspen Digital, Aspen Institute
³Ibid, p.12

Paul Kurtz

Paul has led organizations involved in the most pressing national security issues, ranging from counter-terrorism, weapons nonproliferation, critical infrastructure protection, and cybersecurity.

His management experience spans government, non-profits, to the private sector, ranging from Special Assistant to the President on the White House's National Security Council to managing partner for a consulting company's overseas operations to founding a venture-funded cybersecurity company.

Career highlights include experience on the ground as a weapons inspector in Iraq and North Korea, serving as Political Advisor in Northern Iraq, coordinating the immediate response to the attacks of September 11, planning a national cyber defense program, to turning an idea to automate cyber intelligence management into a successful company (TruSTAR) ultimately acquired by Splunk.

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Founded in 2003, Splunk is a global company — with over 7,500 employees, Splunkers have received over 1,020 patents to date and availability in 21 regions around the world — and offers an open, extensible data platform that supports shared data across any environment so that all teams in an organization can get end-to-end visibility, with context, for every interaction and business process. Build a strong data foundation with Splunk.

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AI: Keep Your Feet on the Ground

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