AI Security & Safety

Unified Risk Assessment for Enhanced Security in AI Systems

Threat modelling is a structured and proactive approach to identifying, understanding, and mitigating security and privacy risks in systems and applications. At its core, it helps answer four essential questions:

1. What are we building? Define the system, its components, data flows, and intended functionality.
2. What can go wrong? Identify potential threats, vulnerabilities, and misuse scenarios.
3. What are we doing to mitigate those risks? Document existing or planned security controls and safeguards.
4. Did we do a good job? Evaluate the effectiveness of mitigations and identify any remaining gaps.

When it comes to AI-powered systems, threat modelling becomes all the more critical. These technologies are still evolving and integrating them into existing environments often introduces unforeseen risks. Most systems aren't yet designed with secure AI integration in mind, making early assessment essential. This aligns directly with GDPR requirements, particularly the obligation to conduct a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) for high-risk processing.

As part of our approach, we collaborate closely with clients to map their environment, configurations, and data flows. This enables us to uncover potential security and privacy risks early. We leverage our deep expertise in cybersecurity, application security, and—when needed—AI red teaming to ensure a thorough and resilient defence strategy.

Comprehensive software security and quality assessment

Evaluating an application or system (IT/IOT/OT) as a software product provides a facts-based deeper understanding of its qualities and limitations regarding security and maintainability. The scope of such evaluations can vary greatly, from analysing source code and SCA (software composition analysis) to examining entire architectures, data models and run-time tests (for a.o. performance, reliability, and security). These evaluations are generally performed against recognised international standards of quality, such as ISO 25010, OWASP Top 10, OWASP ASVS and OWASP Top 10 LLM, and ISO 5055. We can perform entry-level or in-depth assessments, tailor-made for your organisation. Whether you are looking for a conformity check, are worried about the reliability of your key software solution or are involved in a merger or acquisition, we can perform a software product evaluation to provide you with the right information to enable better decision-making and strategic planning while adhering to the latest regulatory requirements. What’s more, we ensure that your software conforms to the latest best practices in the industry.

Navigating the AI threat landscape of sophisticated digital deceptions

Deepfake attacks are becoming more realistic and easier to conduct. By manipulating publicly available images, videos, and audio, anyone can be impersonated, including CEOs and decision-makers. These convincing deceptions can wreak havoc on an organisation by enabling data theft, sabotage, and extortion, and by undermining trust. Misinformation and disinformation can influence elections and corporate negotiations. As we encounter the more nefarious sides of AI, will your organization be able to detect them? 

Modern-day resilience requires more than recognizing a suspicious email or using a clever password. Critical thinking is the true last line of defence. PwC has developed a culture change program built on social and computer sciences to strengthen the human code and transform the workforce into critical security thinkers. 

Ensuring safety and security at every step

In today’s rapidly-evolving digital landscape, ensuring the compliance of AI systems with various regulatory frameworks (such as the EU’s AI Act or the Cyber Resilience Act) is not just a regulatory requirement, it is crucial for maintaining system safety and security. AI technologies are reshaping industries with their transformative potential, but their complexity and continuous evolution also present significant compliance challenges. Non-compliance with ethical standards and legal regulations can expose organisations to a wide range of risks including data breaches, biased decision-making, and security vulnerabilities, ultimately eroding customer trust. 

At PwC, we help organisations achieve the highest levels of safety and security in their AI deployments. By integrating a comprehensive framework based on ethical AI principles and rigorous legal standards, our team offers complete support to ensure your AI solutions comply with the latest security standards and proactively adapt to upcoming regulatory changes in order to safeguard your organisation against potential vulnerabilities and security threats. In a world where AI presents both incredible opportunities and significant risks, maintaining system safety and security is paramount. Our approach provides not just compliance checks but fosters a culture of vigilance and proactive security awareness. By aligning technological advancements with stringent safety and security benchmarks, we empower your organisation to innovate responsibly and securely, ensuring that your AI systems remain resilient and trustworthy.