Emerging Technology Considerations

Artificial intelligence (AI)

• Risks: hallucination, bias, explainability, data leakage, drift, deepfakes.
• Controls: governance and inventory, model validation and monitoring, human review, no sensitive data in public tools.
• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) AI Risk Management Framework: govern, map, measure, manage.

Blockchain

• Distributed, append-only, hash-linked blocks; consensus (proof of work or stake).
• Public vs permissioned; smart contracts execute automatically (bugs too).
• Crypto: control = private keys; fair value through net income; blockchain ≠ proof of validity.

Internet of Things (IoT)

Device inventory · segmentation · change default passwords · firmware updates.

Other

End-user computing outside change control · quantum threat to encryption.

Evaluate any new technology

Governance → risk assessment → controls → third parties → monitoring → audit impact.

Exam traps

• Each block contains the hash of the previous one, so changing a block breaks every later link — that's what makes tampering detectable.
• On a proof-of-work chain, someone controlling most of the computing power (a "51% attack") can rewrite recent blocks.
• Validating an AI model isn't a one-off: drift means performance must be monitored as the data changes.