How GenAI is Changing Your SOC for the Better with Seth Misenar | 54

In this mega-discussion with Seth Misenar on GenAI and LLM usage for security operations we cover some very interesting questions, such as: 

 - The unique capabilities GenAI affords to those working in security operations.

- The importance of natural language processing

- How AI is helping us create and detect phishing email

- Where and how AI is lowering the bar for entry-level security SOC roles

- Should we worry about AI hallucinations?

- Should we worry about all the scary AI output we've seen hit the news?

- Should we worry that AI will take our jobs?

- Using these models in a cost-efficient way

- What is a reasoning model and how is it different than what we've had up to this point with LLMs?

- What are LLMs NOT good at?

- The future of AI - Multimodal interaction, Larger Context Windows, RAG, and more

- What is Agentic AI and why will it change the game for the future of AI?

- Resources for where to start learning!

Episode Links:

• The book from Manning Seth liked as a thoughtful accessible on-ramp: https://www.manning.com/books/introduction-to-generative-ai

• Coursera prompt engineering course series: https://coursera.org/specializations/prompt-engineering

• Gandalf Online Prompt Injection Challenges from Lakera (FYI Seth finds a lot of Lakera’s content to be really high-quality and useful): https://gandalf.lakera.ai/baseline

• “Nonsense on stilts” reference from Gary Marcus in response to the Google employee claiming LaMDA was sentient: https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/nonsense-on-stilts?utm_source=twitter&sd=pf. A note from Seth: The phrase actually ties back to my philosophy background. It was used by philosopher Jeremy Bentham in his criticism of the idea of natural rights. “Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense,—nonsense upon stilts.” Jeremy Bentham from Anarchical Fallacies

• AI as a monster with a smiley face image: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/shoggoth-with-smiley-face-artificial-intelligence

• Ethan Mollick is the Wharton professor Seth mentioned, Seth says his “One Useful Thing” Substack is a valuable and thought provoking source: https://www.oneusefulthing.org/. Also his book released earlier this year, Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI, would also be worth checking out: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/741805/co-intelligence-by-ethan-mollick/

---

Connect with John:

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnlhubbard/

- Upcoming Teaching Schedule: https://www.sans.org/profiles/john-hubbard/

SOC Analyst and Leadership Training Courses:

- SEC450: Blue Team Fundamentals - Security Operations and Analysis - sans.org/sec450

- LDR551: Building and Leading Security Operations Centers - sans.org/ldr551

SANS:

- Full Cyber Defense Course List: https://www.sans.org/cyber-security-courses/?focus-area=cyber-defense

- SANS Cyber Defense Upcoming Events: https://www.sans.org/cyber-security-training-events/

- Free tools, VMs, cheat sheets and more for cyber defenders: sans.org/free