Mike Bruchanski, Chief Product Officer of Sideendlayer, brings twenty years of product development and engineering experience to the company. In his role, Brubansky is responsible for shaping the product strategy of the Hidden, overseeing development pipelines, and driving innovation to support organizations adopting generative and predictive AI.
Hiddenlayer is a leading provider of AI security. Its security platform helps businesses protect the machine learning model behind their most important products. HiddenLayer is the only company that provides turnkey security for AI, does not add unnecessary complexity to models and does not require access to raw data and algorithms. Founded by a team with deep security and ML roots, Hiddenlayer aims to protect enterprise AI from inference, bypass, extraction attacks and model theft.
You have an impressive career journey in product management and AI security. What prompted you to join Hiddenlayer and how does the role align with your personal and professional goals?
I have been attracted to solve new and complex problems, especially when cutting-edge technologies are in line with practical applications. Throughout my career, I have spanned aerospace, cybersecurity and industrial automation, and I have the opportunity to pioneer innovative use of AI and address unique challenges that come with it.
At Hidden Layer, these two worlds (AI Innovation and Security) are adapted in both critical and exciting ways. I recognize that the potential of AI is transformative, but its vulnerability is often underestimated. At Hiddle Layerer, I was able to leverage my expertise to protect this technology while allowing organizations to deploy it with confidence. This is the perfect consistency of my technical background and the enthusiasm to drive influential scalable solutions.
What is the most important adversarial threat to AI systems today? How can organizations proactively reduce these risks?
The rapid adoption of AI across industries has created new opportunities for cyber threats, just like the rise of connected devices we have seen. Some of these threats include model theft and inversion attacks, where an attacker extracts sensitive information or reverse engineers AI models that may reveal proprietary data or intellectual property.
To proactively address these risks, organizations need to embed security at every stage of the AI life cycle. This includes ensuring data integrity, protecting models from exploitation, and adopting solutions focused on protecting AI systems without disrupting their functionality or performance. Security must evolve with AI, and today’s positive measures are the best defense against tomorrow’s threats.
How is Hiddenlayer’s approach to AI security different from traditional cybersecurity approaches, and why is it particularly effective for generated AI models?
Traditional cybersecurity approaches focus on protecting networks and endpoints. However, Hidden Layer adopts a model-centric approach and recognizes that AI systems themselves represent unique and valuable attack surfaces. Unlike conventional methods, Hiddenlayer directly ensures AI models, solving vulnerabilities such as model inversion, data poisoning, and adversarial operations. This target protection ensures that core assets (AI itself) are protected.
Additionally, Hiddenlayer designs solutions for real-world challenges. Our lightweight non-invasive technology will seamlessly integrate into existing workflows, ensuring that the model is protected without compromising its performance. This approach is particularly effective for generated AI models that face increased risks such as data leakage or unauthorized manipulation. By focusing on AI itself, Hiddenlayer sets new standards to ensure the future of machine learning.
What are the biggest challenges when an organization integrates AI security into its existing cybersecurity infrastructure?
Organizations face some major challenges when trying to integrate AI security into existing frameworks. First, many organizations struggle with the knowledge gap because understanding the complexity of AI systems and their vulnerabilities requires expertise, which is not always available internally. Second, there is often pressure to adopt AI quickly to stay competitive, but rushing to deploy solutions without proper security measures can lead to long-term vulnerability. Finally, balancing the need for strong security with maintaining model performance is a delicate challenge. Organizations must ensure that any security measures they implement do not negatively affect the functionality or accuracy of their AI systems.
To address these challenges, organizations need to combine education, strategic planning and access using professional tools. HiddleLayer provides solutions that seamlessly integrate security into the AI lifecycle, allowing organizations to focus on innovation without putting themselves at unnecessary risks.
How does the hidden layer ensure that its solutions maintain lightweight and non-invasive results while providing strong security for AI models?
Our design philosophy prioritizes effectiveness and simplicity of operation. Hiddenlayer’s solution is API-driven and can be easily integrated into existing AI workflows without significant disruption. We focus on monitoring and protecting AI models in real time to avoid changing their structure or performance.
Additionally, our technology is designed to be efficient and scalable, running seamlessly in a variety of environments, whether on-premises, cloud or hybrid settings. By following these principles, we ensure that our customers can protect their AI systems without adding unnecessary complexity to their operations.
How does Hiddenlayer’s automatic red team simplify vulnerability testing in AI systems, and which industries benefit the most from it?
Hiddenlayer’s Automated Red Team utilizes advanced technology to simulate real-world adversarial attacks on AI systems. This enables the organization to:
- Identify vulnerabilities early: By understanding how attackers target their own models, organizations can address weaknesses before being exploited.
- Accelerate test cycles: Automation reduces the time and resources required for a comprehensive security assessment.
- Adapt to evolving threats: Our solutions are constantly updated to illustrate emerging attack vectors.
The benefits of industries such as finance, healthcare, manufacturing, defense and critical infrastructure (AI models deal with sensitive data or drive basic operations) are the biggest benefits. These departments need strong security without sacrificing reliability, making Hiddenlayer’s approach particularly impactful.
As Chief Product Officer, how do you develop a data-driven culture in your product team and how does this translate into a better customer security solution?
At Hiddenlayer, our product philosophy is rooted in three pillars:
- Results-oriented development: We start with our ultimate goal to ensure that our products bring tangible value to our customers.
- Data-driven decision making: Emotions and perspectives are often at high rates in the startup environment. To reduce noise, we rely on empirical evidence to guide our decisions and track everything from product performance to market success.
- Overall thinking: Teams are encouraged to think of the product lifecycle as a system, considering everything from development to marketing and sales.
By embedding these principles, we create a culture that prioritizes relevance, effectiveness, and adaptability. This not only improves our product offerings, but also ensures that we are constantly dealing with the real-life security challenges facing our customers.
Will you give organizations advice on adopting AI due to security issues?
For organizations that are alert to AI because of concerns, it is important to adopt strategies and measurement methods. First, build a secure data pipeline and a strong foundation for strong governance practices to ensure data integrity and privacy. Launching small-scale AI in specific, controlled use cases can provide measurable value without exposing critical systems. Leverage the expertise of trusted partners to meet specific AI-specific security needs and bridge internal knowledge gaps. Finally, reap the benefits of AI through thoughtful deployment of AI while effectively managing potential risks, thus balancing innovation and prudence. With the right preparation, organizations can embrace AI confidently without compromising security.
How did the recent U.S. executive order on AI security and EU AI bill affect Hiddenlayer’s strategies and products?
Latest regulations such as the EU AI Act emphasize the increasing emphasis on the AI deployment of persons in charge. At Hidden Layerer, we actively align solutions to support compliance with these evolving standards. Our tools enable organizations to demonstrate compliance with AI security requirements through comprehensive monitoring and reporting.
We also actively work with regulators to shape industry standards and address unique risks associated with AI. By maintaining a leading position in regulatory trends, we ensure that our clients are able to innovate responsibly and comply with increasingly complex landscapes.
What gaps need to be urgently addressed in the current AI security landscape, and how does Hisdinglayer plan to solve these problems?
The AI security landscape faces two emergency gaps. First, AI models are valuable assets that need to be protected from theft, reverse engineering and manipulation. Hiddenlayer ensures the model is leading the way with innovative solutions to protect it from these threats. Second, traditional security tools usually do not have the ability to resolve AI-specific vulnerabilities, which require special threat detection capabilities.
To address these challenges, Hiddlelayer combines cutting-edge research with ongoing product evolution and market education. By focusing on model protection and tailor-made threat detection, we aim to provide organizations with the tools they need to deploy AI securely and confidently.
Thank you for your excellent interview, readers who hope to learn more should visit Hiddlelayer.
