Cybersecurity Leadership In The AI Era: What CISOs Are Rethinking Now?

In this episode of TechDogs Discover Dialogues Fireside Chat, host Vikramsinh Ghatge brings together Deb Briggs, VP and Chief Information Security Officer at NETSCOUT; Cynthia Overby, Director, Strategic Security Solutions, zCOE at Rocket Software; and Ajay Agrawal, Chief Information Security Officer at Gainsight, for a practical CISO roundtable on cybersecurity leadership in the AI era.
The conversation focuses on what CISOs are rethinking now as organizations move from AI excitement to cybersecurity discipline. The panel explores under-discussed cyber risks, AI’s real impact on security, the rise of shadow AI, identity visibility challenges, third-party dependency, supply chain exposure, AI governance, vulnerability management, and the boardroom translation challenge.
 

Third-Party Dependency Is Becoming A Systemic Risk

The conversation begins with under-discussed cyber risks. Cynthia Overby highlights the growing concern around third-party dependency and concentration risk. Many organizations now rely on a small number of large cloud providers, MSPs, and operational technology partners. If one of those providers faces an outage or breach, the impact can spread across thousands of organizations at the same time.
 

Cloud Concentration Has Created Bigger Targets

Deb Briggs builds on this point by explaining that cloud adoption has placed many organizations’ critical operations into a small number of large baskets. Attackers naturally look for the biggest impact. If a cloud provider, MSP, or major platform becomes a target, the consequences can be widespread.
 

Supply Chain Risk Has Changed

Ajay Agrawal expands the discussion to the broader supply chain. He points out that the rules of vulnerability management and third-party trust have changed dramatically. Customers are no longer satisfied with explanations that a vulnerability is not exploitable today. The concern is that what is not exploitable today may become exploitable tomorrow, especially as AI and new tooling accelerate discovery and exploitation.
 

Identity Is The New Attack Surface

One of the strongest themes in the roundtable is identity. Deb Briggs explains that attackers are not always breaking in anymore. They are logging in. That makes identity, credentials, access, service accounts, and non-human identities central to cyber defense.
 

Shadow AI Is The New Shadow IT

Ajay Agrawal identifies shadow AI as one of the most immediate security challenges. Employees can buy and use AI tools without informing IT or security teams. One approved AI tool may be accompanied by 10 or 20 unapproved tools operating in different parts of the enterprise. This creates a governance challenge. Organizations cannot secure what they cannot see. Shadow AI can expose sensitive data, create compliance gaps, and introduce tools that have not been evaluated for risk.
 

AI Governance Must Start Now

AI governance is still maturing, but CISOs cannot wait for perfect frameworks. Ajay points to AI risk management frameworks and governance committees as starting points. Organizations need a charter, clear roles, and responsibilities for security, privacy, legal, compliance, IT, and business stakeholders.
 

Cyber Risk Must Be Translated Into Business Language

Cybersecurity is now a board-level issue, but the translation challenge remains. CISOs must connect technical realities to business exposure, regulatory expectations, customer trust, operational resilience, and financial impact. The panel’s discussion reinforces that CISOs must be more than technical experts. They must be business risk leaders who can explain why identity, third-party dependency, supply chain exposure, AI governance, and vulnerability management matter to the organization’s ability to operate and grow.

Key Takeaways:
 

• Third-party dependency and concentration risk are becoming major cybersecurity concerns.

• Cloud and MSP concentration can create systemic exposure across many organizations.

• AI is accelerating vulnerability discovery and changing security expectations.

• Supply chain security must become more proactive, contextual, and continuous.

• Customers are no longer satisfied with static explanations around vulnerability exposure.

• Identity has become one of the most important cybersecurity battlegrounds.

• Attackers are increasingly logging in rather than breaking in.

• Service accounts, machine identities, non-human identities, and AI agents need stronger governance.

• AI can help defenders with threat hunting, incident response, and vulnerability prioritization.

• AI also expands risk through shadow AI, unmanaged tools, and employee-built applications.

About The Guests:

Deb Briggs is the VP and Chief Information Security Officer at NETSCOUT. She brings deep experience across enterprise information security, cyber risk, governance, compliance, incident response, vulnerability management, data strategy, and responsible AI usage. Her contribution in this roundtable focuses on cloud concentration risk, non-human identities, AI governance, and AI-enabled vulnerability management.

Cynthia Overby is the Director, Strategic Security Solutions, zCOE at Rocket Software. She brings extensive experience across cybersecurity strategy, mainframe security, hybrid cloud, data protection, compliance, vulnerability management, cyber resilience, and enterprise risk. Her perspective focuses on third-party dependency, identity-centric AI security, service account lessons, context-aware governance, and the human role in AI-assisted security.

Ajay Agrawal is the Chief Information Security Officer at Gainsight. He brings experience across cybersecurity leadership, security governance, cloud security, supply chain security, identity risk, AI risk, vulnerability management, and enterprise security strategy. His perspective focuses on shadow AI, changing customer expectations, marketplace and third-party risk, AI governance, and practical controls for fast-moving security environments.