Cloudflare Equips Organizations with the Zero Trust Security They Need to Safely Use Generative AI

Now companies can give their teams the productivity and innovation of emerging generative AI – while reducing risk with built-in security and governance controls over the flow of data

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET), the security, performance, and reliability company helping to build a better Internet, today extended its single-vendor SASE platform, Cloudflare One, to generative artificial intelligence (AI) services. Cloudflare One for AI, a suite of Zero Trust security controls, will enable enterprises to safely and securely use the latest generative AI tools without putting intellectual property and customer data at risk.

With every transformative step forward in technology, from mobile phones to cloud computing, there are new security threats that rise to the surface. Major companies have banned the use of popular generative AI chat apps because of sensitive data leaks, and Italy instituted a temporary ban on generative AI tools for inadequate user data protections. According to a KPMG survey on generative AI, AI is expected to have an enormous impact on business, but the majority of US executives surveyed are years away from implementing it; cyber security (81%) and data privacy (78%) are the most top of mind concerns for leaders. CISOs and CIOs need to strike a balance between enabling transformative innovation through AI and still maintaining compliance with data privacy regulations. Whether it’s an employee experimenting with AI, or a company initiative, once proprietary data is exposed to AI, there is no way to reverse it.

"AI holds incredible promise, but without proper guardrails it can create significant risks for businesses. It is far too easy, by default, to upload sensitive internal or customer data to AI tools. Once the data is used for training AI, it is virtually impossible to get it out," explained Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. "If you were going to let a class of university students rummage around in your internal data, you'd of course put clear rules in place on what data they can access and how it can be used in their education. Cloudflare's Zero Trust products are the first to provide the guard rails for AI tools, so businesses can take advantage of the opportunity AI unlocks while ensuring only the data you want to expose gets shared."

Cloudflare One for AI provides a simple, fast, and secure way for companies to safely build using the latest generative AI technologies, without compromising security or performance. With Cloudflare One, companies can gain visibility into and measure AI tool usage, prevent data loss, and manage integrations:

• Cloudflare Gateway helps companies observe how many employees are experimenting with AI services, and adds context when planning for budgets and enterprise licensing.
• Service tokens give administrators a clear log of API requests, control over the specific services that can access AI training data, and the ability to revoke tokens with a single click when building ChatGPT plugins for internal and external use.
• Cloudflare Tunnel provides an encrypted, outbound-only connection to Cloudflare’s network. Every request will be checked against the access rules configured for services protected by Cloudflare One or when teams are ready to allow an AI service to connect to their infrastructure.
• Cloudflare’s Data Loss Prevention (DLP) service provides a safeguard to close the human gap in how employees may share data. Simple pre-configured options can check for data that looks like social security numbers or credit card numbers, and custom scans can look for patterns based on data configurations for a specific team. More granular rules can even allow select users to experiment with projects containing sensitive data, with stronger limitations on the majority of teams and employees.
• Cloudflare's cloud access security broker (CASB) service gives comprehensive visibility and control over SaaS apps. Soon, Cloudflare CASB will be able to scan the AI tools that your team uses to detect misconfiguration and misuse.

Generative AI is an exciting technology with the promise to transform how we work. As this technology evolves and new tools and plugins are developed, Cloudflare’s platform approach to security will ensure that enterprises everywhere can embrace these productivity enhancements without creating bottlenecks and ensure compliance with the latest regulations.

To learn more, please check out the resources below:

• Blog: Zero Trust Security for your AI Toolkit
• Resource: Roadmap to Zero Trust

About Cloudflare

Cloudflare, Inc. (www.cloudflare.com / @cloudflare) is on a mission to help build a better Internet. Cloudflare’s suite of products protect and accelerate any Internet application online without adding hardware, installing software, or changing a line of code. Internet properties powered by Cloudflare have all web traffic routed through its intelligent global network, which gets smarter with every request. As a result, they see significant improvement in performance and a decrease in spam and other attacks. Cloudflare was awarded by Reuters Events for Global Responsible Business in 2020, named to Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies in 2021, and ranked among Newsweek's Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces in 2022.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “explore,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “could,” “intend,” “target,” “project,” “contemplate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of these words, or other similar terms or expressions that concern Cloudflare’s expectations, strategy, plans, or intentions. However, not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements expressed or implied in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the capabilities and effectiveness of Cloudflare One for AI and Cloudflare’s other products and technology, the benefits to Cloudflare’s customers from using Cloudflare One for AI and Cloudflare’s other products and technology, the timing of when Cloudflare One for AI or any of its related features will be developed and available in beta form, or generally available, to all current and potential Cloudflare customers, Cloudflare’s technological development, future operations, growth, initiatives, or strategies, and comments made by Cloudflare’s CEO and others. Actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited to, risks detailed in Cloudflare’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including Cloudflare’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on April 27, 2023, as well as other filings that Cloudflare may make from time to time with the SEC.

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