Tech Talks Daily
00:23:45 · Jonathan Trayers
[00:23:45] S1: Yeah. Look. I think the first aspect is don't just turn it on and start using it. Start by bringing it up to a board level and management decisions to understand the scope of... And boundaries that the organization that you work for accept. Essentially, that would define the use case that will be brought in for and that has an associated risk appetite that has to be signed off from a board level. From that kind of element, would ask governance forward. You can set a light policy in terms of how it's used. And based on that, you can bring essentially a pattern for use within the environment to say that, you know, okay, once we have this use case, this is how we're going to use it, this is how we're going to implement it, and looking at this from a building blocks perspective, like, just like you would build an application, right, today. So if we were to build an application in in our environment, we'd have a web app, we'd pick one of the infrastructure components within our environment like Windows or Linux. We'd apply the hardened image that's approved by my organization, which is in line with the identity and access management policy. And every single building block that I've decide... Described there from that standard build perspective, you'd apply a similar pattern to AI. So define the pattern that can be reusable, and therefore, you're essentially putting guardrails in place for each stage of usage. And that allows you to protect your environment, to control and detect if something goes wrong, and then reuse them patterns over and over again. Right? I think that you have to start somewhere. So start by not looking at every single use case. Break it down to a single use case that you find the most value. And and from that there, you can essentially build upon it, which at least you have the the foundations in place.
00:25:43 · Neil C. Hughes, Jonathan Trayers
[00:25:43] S0: I think that is powerful moment to end on. And for anyone listening wanting to find out more about you guys, Ekco is one of the fastest growing security first MSPs in Europe. So I do urge people to check you out. But where should they go? Where can they find out more information, connect with you or your team, etcetera? [00:25:59] S1: Yeah. Look. Our website is ek.co. Reach out to us or you can reach out to me directly. I'm on LinkedIn under Jonathan Trayers. Always happy to connect with anyone. And I think from a takeaway perspective, look, AI is moving really fast. Right? But so how does every other technology advancement that has came before it? And I think it's by starting small, building a pattern, and utilizing kind of small building blocks to be able to introduce that technology into your organization. If you're on the other side of the house and you're worried about how your organization may be compromised from external agents, etcetera, I think just get really good at the basics. Vulnerability management, patch management, configuration management. There's nothing new here. It's hard work, but that's what's going to keep you safe.
00:25:59 · Jonathan Trayers, Neil C. Hughes
[00:25:59] S1: Yeah. Look. Our website is ek.co. Reach out to us or you can reach out to me directly. I'm on LinkedIn under Jonathan Trayers. Always happy to connect with anyone. And I think from a takeaway perspective, look, AI is moving really fast. Right? But so how does every other technology advancement that has came before it? And I think it's by starting small, building a pattern, and utilizing kind of small building blocks to be able to introduce that technology into your organization. If you're on the other side of the house and you're worried about how your organization may be compromised from external agents, etcetera, I think just get really good at the basics. Vulnerability management, patch management, configuration management. There's nothing new here. It's hard work, but that's what's going to keep you safe. [00:26:50] S0: Fantastic advice. I will add links to absolutely everything. I urge people listening to check you out and continue this conversation we started. And I would also love to hear from you. Techtalksnetwork.com. Give me a shout. Let me know your challenges, what the good, the bad, and the ugly out there with all things AI and AI agents. But more than anything, Johnny, just thank you for joining me today, bringing all this to life in a language everyone can understand. Really appreciate you, Tom. [00:27:16] S1: Thanks very much, Neil.
00:27:16 · Jonathan Trayers, Neil C. Hughes
[00:27:16] S1: Thanks very much, Neil. [00:27:17] S0: So much gold in Jonathan's answers today, and one of the big things I'm taking away is to look closely at what an agent is allowed to do. A helpful instruction cannot compensate for access that reaches further than that work or request requires. So we're talking about separate identities, narrower permissions and a way to withdraw access and make that responsibility easier to manage. And I think Jonathan also made a case for beginning with one defined use case and building a repeatable pattern around it. Test in a control environment, keep a person involved while learning how the system behaves, and then monitor everything that happens after deployment. What I'm trying to say is the work continues when the demo ends. So a big thank you to him for joining me today. I will add his LinkedIn profile, the website, and a few other things over on the blog post associated with this at techtalksnetwork.com. But let me know your experience. Is it... And also have a think. If an AI agent surprised your team tomorrow, would you know which system it could reach and who could stop its access and its tracks right now? If you can't answer that right now, then maybe you need to be having a chat with someone in your tech teams. But let me know. Techtalksnetwork.com. I'll be back again tomorrow with another guest. Thanks for listening. Bye for now.