AI Security Incident Playbook Shaping Up as JCDC Holds Simulated Government-Industry Coordination

More than 50 representatives of government agencies and their industry partners participated in a simulation exercise on efficient and organized countermeasures on artificial intelligence security breaches. 

The Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative, which the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency formed to organize public-private cyber defenders worldwide, hosted the event at Microsoft’s Reston, Virginia, facility to support the creation of an AI Security Incident Collaboration Playbook that the JCDC is leading.

During the four-hour exercise, the participants collaborated on addressing a simulated cybersecurity incident on an AI-powered system through the sharing of information and protocols. The simulation’s learnings will lay the framework for the ways by which the government, industry and international partners will jointly respond to AI security incidents for publication in the playbook expected for release by year-end.  

Officials who attended the event emphasized to the participants the need to install robust structures against future and present AI security threats, CISA said Friday.

CISA Director Jen Easterly, a 2024 Wash 100 awardee, saw the exercise not only as a step toward reducing AI risks, saying the event also underscores the value of “developing and delivering AI products that are designed with security as the top priority.”

Bret Arsenault, Microsoft’s chief cybersecurity adviser, pointed out the importance of collaboration in cyber incident response, noting that partnership is crucial with government and industry entering “a new AI landscape.”