Continuing from Part 1, where we discovered how easily our AI systems could be compromised…
Here’s our battle-tested defense playbook:
Our Defense Strategy: The Fortress Method
Input Validation – The Bouncer System After discovering extra JavaScript hiding in “simple” form requests, we built a validator that reviews every piece of code before sharing.
Hidden scripts, suspicious redirects, secret fields—all blocked. The AI gets a clean version to work with.
Smart Architecture – Complete Isolation When we realized one user’s input could affect others, we completely redesigned our system:
- Sandboxing: Each user runs in a fully isolated environment.
- Session Isolation: Memory cleared between sessions—what happens in one session stays there.
- Least Privilege: AI gets only the access it absolutely needs.
File Processing – Clean Everything After our design file incident, we now strip every uploaded file of hidden content. Only actual design elements—colors, layouts, images—make it through. All metadata and hidden text get removed.
Constitutional AI – Non-Negotiable Rules We hardcoded core safety rules directly into our AI’s behavior. No clever prompt can bypass these fundamental protections—they’re built into the AI’s DNA, not layered on top.
Advanced Protection: The Immune System
- Adversarial Training: We regularly attack our own systems to find weaknesses.
- Real-Time Monitoring: Anomaly detection spots unusual behavior instantly.
- Behavioral Baselines: We know what normal AI activity looks like.
- Smart Alerts: Immediate notifications when something seems off.
What We Learned (The Hard Way)
Think of prompt injection as SQL injection’s clever cousin—but instead of attacking databases, it targets the “brain” of AI systems.
Our Key Insight: Security isn’t something you add to AI systems after they’re built. It needs to be designed from day one, tested ruthlessly, and monitored constantly.
Every bug we found, every vulnerability we patched, and every late night spent redesigning our security taught us one crucial lesson:
The cost of building security in from the start is always less than the cost of fixing it after an incident.
The Bottom Line
Just like we learned to spot phishing emails and secure our websites, we now need to build defenses against these AI-targeted attacks. The good news? With proper planning and testing, these defenses absolutely work.
Don’t wait for perfect solutions from the research community—start building defenses now with what we know works.
