Page 92 - Cyber Defense eMagazine September 2025

Regulation Is Accelerating

Governments around the world are moving quickly to put rules in place for AI. In the EU, the AI Act is
taking shape. In the US, executive orders and state laws are starting to set clear expectations. Across
these efforts, the message is the same, “AI needs to be transparent, accountable, and guided by human
judgment”. Businesses that ignore this shift are taking a serious risk.

Meeting regulatory demands today takes more than checking boxes. It means keeping an up-to-date
inventory of AI systems, clearly documenting where data comes from and how decisions are made, and
keeping a close eye on how models behave over time. If a company relies on third-party AI tools,
contracts need to spell out the right to audit and set clear performance expectations.

Rather than seeing regulation as a burden, security leaders should view it as a chance to improve
governance. Taking a proactive approach to emerging standards can build trust, set the company apart
from competitors, and ensure its prepared for whatever the future brings.

The Strategic Response

Integrated Assurance provides a framework for governing AI across the full enterprise lifecycle. It’s an
operational model that aligns engineering, risk, compliance, legal, and security around a shared mission
of building trustworthy AI.

This model begins with visibility. Every AI system must be registered, classified, and understood. Next
comes consistency. Policies, templates, and evaluation criteria must be standardized so that assurance
can scale across diverse use cases. Then comes adaptability. Governance mechanisms must respond
to changes in model behavior, business needs, and external regulations.

Integrated Assurance also emphasizes culture. Trust is not created through documentation alone. It is
created through behavior from leaders modeling transparency, teams collaborating across functions, and
every stakeholder taking ownership of risk.

Security leaders have a unique opportunity to lead this shift. They understand the complexity of modern
systems, navigate nonstop regulatory pressure, and stay alert to how fast threats can change. When they
adopt Integrated Assurance, they stop being seen as the ones who hold things back and start being
valued as the people who make trust possible.

A Call to Leadership

The future of organizational resilience won’t be shaped by how many AI tools a company rolls out. What
will truly matter is how well those systems are governed. The organizations that succeed in this next
phase won’t necessarily be the fastest or the most cost efficient, they’ll be the ones people trust.

Security has to lead from the front. That means moving past silos, aligning closely with business goals,
and making sure assurance is built into every part of the AI lifecycle, from design to deployment. It starts

Cyber Defense eMagazine – September 2025 Edition 92
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