NIST CSF's Blueprint for AI Security
By The Trescudo Intelligence Team • Author: Evangeline Smith, MarCom September 8, 2025
Artificial Intelligence is no longer a future-state technology; it's a core engine of modern business, driving everything from operational efficiency to competitive advantage. But as we integrate AI deeper into our organisations, we are also creating a new, complex, and poorly understood attack surface.
Recognising this, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)—long considered the gold standard for cybersecurity guidance—has released a groundbreaking concept paper:
"Cybersecurity of Artificial Intelligence Systems."
This isn't just another technical document. It's the first official blueprint for moving the security of AI from an abstract idea to a structured, defensible program. For leaders across the globe, this is a critical signal to start asking a new, urgent question: Is our AI secure?
The Big Idea: An "Overlay" for AI Security
NIST's core proposal is not to create an entirely new security framework for AI. Instead, they recommend developing an "AI Overlay" for existing, proven frameworks like the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) and SP 800-53.
Think of it like this: The NIST CSF is a universal language for cybersecurity risk management. An overlay acts as a specialised dialect, translating those universal principles for a specific technology—in this case, AI. It maps the unique threats that AI systems face back to the established, trusted security controls that we already know how to implement.
"The rapid adoption of AI is creating a new class of 'crown jewel' assets: the models and data that drive business innovation. But these assets are vulnerable to a new class of threats. As leaders, our challenge is not to slow down innovation, but to secure it. A framework-led approach, as pioneered by NIST, is the only way to build the trust and resilience needed to capitalise on the AI revolution safely."
— Derick Smith, CEO, Trescudo
The New Attack Surface: Why AI is a Different Kind of Target
An AI system is not just another piece of software. Its vulnerabilities are unique and can have devastating consequences. The NIST paper highlights several key AI-specific threats that traditional security models often miss:
Data Poisoning: Imagine a spy secretly feeding your new AI-driven fraud detection model a stream of bad data during its training. The model learns the wrong lessons from the start, building in a critical flaw that attackers can later exploit. This is a subtle attack on the Integrity of the AI supply chain.
Model Evasion: This is an attack on the AI's perception. Think of a specially designed pattern on a t-shirt that makes a person invisible to a security camera's AI. Attackers use carefully crafted inputs to trick a model into making a dangerously incorrect classification.
Model Extraction & Theft: Your AI models are immensely valuable intellectual property. Attackers are developing techniques to "steal" a model by repeatedly querying it and reverse-engineering its architecture, or by directly exfiltrating the model files themselves.
These threats attack the very logic and data that make AI systems work, going beyond the traditional exploits we've spent years defending against.
From Blueprint to Reality: The Trescudo Arsenal for Securing AI
NIST has provided the blueprint. The next step is implementation. Securing an AI ecosystem requires a multi-layered, integrated defense that can protect the data, the models, and the infrastructure they run on.
This is where Trescudo's framework-led approach aligns directly with NIST's vision. We can secure your AI initiatives by applying our proven solutions to this new attack surface:
Cloud Security (CNAPP): Most AI workloads run in the cloud. Our Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) provides the foundational security for the infrastructure, securing the containers and workloads where your models are trained and deployed.
Identity & Access Management (IAM) & Privileged Access (PAM): The easiest way to poison a model is to gain unauthorised access to its training data. Our IAM and PAM solutions are the first line of defence, ensuring only authorised personnel and processes can access or modify your critical AI assets.
Agentic AI Hyperautomation: The ultimate defence against a compromised AI is a smarter, faster AI. Our own Agentic AI Hyperautomation platform can monitor your AI systems for anomalous behaviour, detecting the subtle signs of an evasion or poisoning attack at machine speed. This is how we fight AI with AI.
The Strategic Imperative: Secure Your Innovation
The NIST concept paper is a clear signal that the era of "AI experimentation" is over. AI is now critical infrastructure, and it must be secured as such. While regional regulations like NIS2 and the AI Act are shaping compliance, the NIST CSF provides the global gold standard for a practical, risk-based approach.
For businesses worldwide, building a secure AI program is not just a matter of compliance; it's a prerequisite for maintaining trust and staying competitive in the AI-driven economy.
The blueprint is here. The time to build your AI security strategy is now.
Is your organisation prepared to secure its most innovative assets? Schedule your Cyber Resilience Strategy Session to discuss your AI security posture.