Open source large-language models (LLM) proceed to revolutionize the cybersecurity landscape, serving as a powerful catalyst for increasing innovation and enabling each startups and established vendors to speed up time to market.
From recent generative AI applications to advanced security tools, these models underpin the future of AI-powered cybersecurity. Open source models gaining popularity in cybersecurity include: Meta LLaMA 2. LLaMA 3.2, Sokół Institute of Technological Innovation, StableLM AI Stabilityand those run by Face Huggingincluding BLOOM BigScience. All of these models are having fun with increasing adoption and use, largely due to their greater cost-effectiveness, flexibility and transparency.
Cybersecurity software providers face increasing management and licensing challenges while enabling their platforms to scale in response to the rapidly changing nature of open source LLM development. Designing an architecture that may quickly adapt and make the most of the latest features offered by the latest open source LLM platforms is a challenge.
Itamar Sher, CEO and co-founder Security sealrecently sat down with VentureBeat (virtually) to discuss the fundamental but evolving role of open source LLMs in their operations. “Open-source LLMs enable us to scale security patching for open-source components in a way that cannot be achieved with closed-source models,” he said.
The ability to scale models quickly is crucial for corporations like Seal that use open source components to ensure patches could be deployed quickly across environments. He added that “open source LLM programs give us access to a community that is constantly improving models, offering a layer of intelligence and speed that would not be possible with proprietary systems.”
The growing importance of open source LLM in cybersecurity
Cybersecurity vendors have long relied on proprietary applications, tools and platforms to lock customers into a solution, particularly in the areas of threat detection and mitigation. However, VentureBeat is hearing backlash against this strategy, which is making the open source LLM much more popular.
Gartner The 2024 Open Source Hype Cycle reflects the growing importance of open source LLM solutions, which puts them at the top of inflated expectations. This placement reflects what VentureBeat is hearing about increased interest and adoption across the cybersecurity vendor and enterprise landscape.
The hype cycle shows that the maturity of open source LLM solutions continues to grow, with market penetration ranging from 5% to 20%. The technology is expected to plateau in the next two to five years, highlighting its rapid development and growing dominance in the cybersecurity field.
VentureBeat sees more and more cybersecurity startups benefiting from the flexibility and scale of adapting open source LLM solutions into their platforms, applications and tool strategies. A typical use case is tuning models to meet domain-specific needs, from improving real-time threat detection to improving vulnerability management.
Sher said: “By integrating open-source LLM solutions, we can tailor models to specific threats and use cases, allowing us to remain agile and responsive to evolving cybersecurity challenges.”
Comparing the benefits and challenges of an open source LLM
Open source LLMs bring several advantages to the development and operation of cybersecurity systems, including:
Personalization, scale and flexibility: One of the essential drivers of open source LLM solutions, which are popular among cybersecurity corporations standardizing them, is the ability to quickly modify models for specific use cases. Seal Security’s integration of LLM into its security platforms, applications, tools and services demonstrates how corporations can use these models to improve patch management processes across open source components. John Morello, CTO and co-founder BowelSy told VentureBeat in a recent interview that the nature of open source Google’s BERT The open-source language model allows Gutsy to customize and train its model for specific security use cases while maintaining privacy and performance.
Social Collaboration: Open source LLM corporations profit from a rapidly growing community of developers who push their boundaries and scale every day to solve complex cybersecurity challenges. These communities are setting the rapid pace when it comes to continuous innovation, enabling corporations, developers and universities to conduct research to profit from shared insights and improvements. For example, Seal Security has partnered with MITRE’s CVE Numbering Authority (CNA) to improve collaboration on open source software vulnerabilities.
Reducing supplier lock-in: Open source models offer enterprises a way to avoid vendor lock-in, giving them greater control over costs and reducing their reliance on proprietary systems. VentureBeat sees this issue as crucial to the future of cybersecurity, with flexibility being the goal. Responding quickly to threats and taking a consistent approach to patching is crucial to the future of cybersecurity.
However, these advantages are not without challenges. Gartner notes in its research that open source LLM solutions often require significant infrastructure investments, which may create long-term operational challenges for corporations that lack well-funded and trained internal IT and security teams.
The licensing complexities associated with open source models also can create legal and compliance risks. Sher explained that “open source models give us transparency, but managing their lifecycles and ensuring compliance is still a major concern.”
The contribution of the open source LLM to cybersecurity is growing
VentureBeat sees cybersecurity vendors adopting open-source LLM solutions as the core of their platforms, gaining a competitive advantage through improvements in threat detection and response. Seal Security was able to leverage open source models for real-time detection and management of vulnerabilities by integrating them with its security patching systems. According to Sher, “Our infrastructure is designed to quickly switch between different LLMs, depending on the threat landscape, so we can stay ahead of emerging vulnerabilities.”
Gartner predicts that small language models or edge LLMs will likely be increasingly used in domain-specific, cybersecurity-driven applications. Edge LLMs, by definition, are decentralized closer to the data they need to analyze, allowing for faster processing and real-time threat detection.
Edge LLM is designed to require less processing power, making it easier to manage and inexpensive to train, making it ideal for cybersecurity applications that require real-time speed and accuracy. With the ability to operate at the edge, LLM networks can quickly detect threats in environments where latency is critical, equivalent to IoT devices or distant systems.
Protection against software supply chain attacks
Despite the growing number of contributions that open source LLM programs make, additionally they come with risks. The growing number of attacks on the software supply chain is a major problem. Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Open-Source Software 2024 report notes that open source components are increasingly becoming the goal of state-sponsored attacks. The average age of vulnerabilities in open source code bases is roughly 2.8 yearsmaking it necessary for corporations to implement and update patch management and management systems.
Seal Security’s recent designation as CVE numbering authority (CNA) it is essential that the supplier plays a more key role in mitigating the risk of supply chain attacks. The company can now discover, document and assign vulnerabilities through the CVE program, helping to improve the security of open source code across the industry. Their partnership with MITER further enhances this capability, enabling Seal to share findings with the broader cybersecurity community.
Sher said this collaboration helps increase the security of all those using open source software, reinforcing the company’s commitment to protecting the global software ecosystem.
Looking to the future
Open source LLM corporations are redefining the cybersecurity landscape by reducing reliance on legacy technologies and platforms. VentureBeat sees how quickly these models are evolving in terms of availability, quality and speed, making them a viable alternative to proprietary systems.
For corporations like Seal Security, the future lies in continually developing open source LLM capabilities to stay ahead of the ever-changing threat landscape. “We are constantly evaluating new models and infrastructures to ensure we can provide our customers with the best security solutions,” Sher concluded.