DFS Superintendent Adrienne A. Harris Issues New Guidance to Address Cybersecurity Risks Arising from Artificial Intelligence

New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) Superintendent Adrienne A. Harris today issued new guidance to assist regulated entities in addressing and combating cybersecurity risks arising from artificial intelligence.  The guidance builds on the Department’s ongoing work to protect New Yorkers and DFS-licensed entities from cybersecurity risks through its nation-leading cybersecurity regulation (23 NYCRR Part 500) and follows recently adopted DFS guidance to combat discrimination by insurers using artificial intelligence.

“AI has improved the ability for businesses to enhance threat detection and incident response strategies, while concurrently creating new opportunities for cybercriminals to commit crimes at greater scale and speed,” said Superintendent Harris.  “New York will continue to ensure that as AI -enabled tools become more prolific, security standards remain rigorous to safeguard critical data, while allowing the flexibility needed to address diverse risk profiles in an ever-changing digital landscape.”

DFS-regulated institutions must assess and take appropriate steps to address their cybersecurity risks, including evolving risks arising from AI.  Consistent with the Department’s cybersecurity regulation, this guidance takes a risk-based approach to assist the financial services sector to better understand, assess, and mitigate their AI-specific cybersecurity risks, including social engineering, enhanced cyber-attacks, theft of nonpublic information, and increased vulnerabilities due to supply chain dependencies.  Critically, the cybersecurity measures outlined in the guidance and required by the cybersecurity regulation provide multiple layers of security controls with overlapping protections.  This ensures that if one control fails, other controls are in place to prevent or mitigate the impact of a cybersecurity attack.  This guidance does not impose new requirements, it helps DFS-regulated institutions meet their existing obligations in the Department’s cybersecurity regulation in light of evolving risks from AI.  A copy of the guidance can be found on the Department’s website.  Additional cybersecurity resources can be found on the Department’s Cybersecurity Resource Center.