Frontier vs. Local LLMs for OT Security - Considerations & Use Cases
About This Session
Besides enthralling people with easy-to-generate funny images & videos, LLMs and AI have made significant inroads in enterprise use cases the past 3-4 years. Several IT Security tools have an AI component, be it a chatbot or some kind of model based analytics. While OT Security software too is adding some of that functionality, the real difference will be made when more OT datasets are analyzed, likely on-prem due to various constraints including data aggregation challenges, ingress/egress costs to the Cloud, infrastructure & compute, knowledge & skillsets (new lingo - harness, prompt engineering) etc.
For some, the best way to take advantage of AI developments is to run local models (e.g., Qwen, Gemma), extract as much as value as possible on local HW, and supplement it with Frontier models when able to query without sending sensitive data to the Cloud. This presentation outlines the current state of the union, HW & SW availability & requirements based on use cases, efficacy, confidentiality, decision making process in building out the tech stack including what tools are currently available for local inference & reasoning, and things to consider when adding Frontier models in OT Security projects.
For some, the best way to take advantage of AI developments is to run local models (e.g., Qwen, Gemma), extract as much as value as possible on local HW, and supplement it with Frontier models when able to query without sending sensitive data to the Cloud. This presentation outlines the current state of the union, HW & SW availability & requirements based on use cases, efficacy, confidentiality, decision making process in building out the tech stack including what tools are currently available for local inference & reasoning, and things to consider when adding Frontier models in OT Security projects.
Speaker
Vivek Ponnada
SVP Growth & Strategy - Frenos
Vivek Ponnada is an Operational Technology (OT) Security practitioner with global experience and serves as SVP of Growth & Strategy at Frenos. Having started his career in Industrial Control Systems (ICS) as a Technician, Vivek became a Controls Engineer and commissioned Gas Turbines in Europe, Middle-East, Africa and South-East Asia. Post MBA, Vivek held multiple roles including Sales, Marketing & Business Development and Services covering OT Security solutions for Critical Infrastructure industries at GE, XenonCyber Dynamics and Nozomi Networks. Vivek has a C.Eng from I.E. India, MBA from UT-Austin and hold the ISA/IEC 62443 Cybersecurity Expert & GICSP certifications. He is a member of the ISA, ISACA, Public Safety Canada ICS Security Symposium Advisory Committee and is a CS2AI Fellow.