Shadow AI incident response can become difficult almost immediately, according to a Help Net Security interview with Brandy Wityak, VP of Complex Matters at LevelBlue. The discussion focuses on what security teams face in the first hours after a shadow AI event, when key evidence may already be at risk.
A central issue is log retention. Wityak explains that logs can roll over quickly, which means potentially useful records may disappear before investigators can preserve them. That creates pressure to move fast, especially when teams are trying to determine what happened, what systems were involved, and whether sensitive information may have left the organization.
The interview also highlights limits in network visibility. Firewall records showing outbound traffic to AI platforms may not provide a complete picture, making it harder to reconstruct activity after the fact. If those records are partial or short-lived, incident responders may have only a narrow window to collect evidence and understand the scope of the event.
Overall, the interview underscores a practical challenge for companies dealing with shadow AI risks: response depends heavily on telemetry that may not be available for long. The early stage of an investigation can therefore be decisive, with fast evidence collection and log preservation playing a critical role in understanding the incident.
