How Technology Secures the Future with MGM Resorts International SVP & CISO Stephen Harrison

On the 18th episode of Enterprise Software Defenders, hosts Evan Reiser and Mike Britton, both executives at Abnormal Security, talk with Stephen Harrison, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer at MGM Resorts International. MGM Resorts International is a global hospitality and entertainment leader, operating some of the most iconic destinations in Las Vegas and beyond. MGM boasts an annual revenue of over $16 billion and employs more than 70,000 people worldwide. In this conversation, Stephen shares his thoughts on cybersecurity complexities in the entertainment sector, the deployment of AI – in both safeguarding systems and enhancing attack methods, and the escalation of automated exploits targeting human error.

00:00 Intro
00:29 About Stephen Harrison
02:26 Where Did You Begin Your Journey in Cybersecurity?
04:15 What Unique Security Challenges Does MGM Face?
11:00 How The Evolution of Technology Impacts the Way You Provide Security
16:02 The Duality Regarding the Speed of Innovation
20:27 How Are Threat Actors Using AI Today?
24:50 How Do We Defend Against AI Based Attacks?
28:17 Lightning Round
30:07 Outro

Quick hits from Stephen:

On the rapid pace of technology change and AI: “It's hard when we're at a period of time where there's never been faster acceleration of technology. And whatever you thought was cutting-edge AI last week, well, just check Twitter this week. You're probably wrong.”

On adapting to rapid technological change: “If you’re running an enterprise security and you’re sort of putting up this gridiron fence saying, ‘No, our company is not going to use AI at a professional knowledge worker level.’ I think you’re probably doing a disservice.”

On the evolving threat landscape: “Every innovation that comes out is also empowering threat actors… you have ransomware as a service right now. And I would expect by next year, sometime to see ransomware as a service evolve and become more like AI as a service for threat actors.”

Recent Book Recommendation: Dare to Lead by Brené Brown