Human-Empowered AI Cybersecurity

The first comprehensive open framework designed to combat emerging generative AI threats by positioning humans as the primary cognitive defense layer.

"Think First, Verify Always"

The AI Cybersecurity Paradigm Shift

As organizations strengthen technical defenses, the threat landscape has dramatically shifted toward human cognitive domains. Recent evidence shows that 60% of security breaches stem from human factors (Verizon 2025), with AI-enabled threats now posing systemic risks to critical infrastructure.

Traditional cybersecurity frameworks focus on systems and devices, but AI now operates at the core of human cognition, generating expert discourse, distilling legal corpora, and providing real-time guidance in high-stakes environments. This creates an entirely new attack surface that technical controls alone cannot defend.

Critical AI-Driven Cognitive Threats:
  • Emotional Manipulation - Deepfakes exploiting humans' poor detection abilities
  • Narrative Engineering - AI fostering trust through rich interactions to guide compromising decisions
  • Authority Hallucination - AI delivering confident but inaccurate information that mimics expert consensus

Humans as "Firewall Zero" Against AI Threats

HCSK reconceptualizes humans as 'Firewall Zero' - the first line of cognitive defense against sophisticated AI-enabled attacks. Rather than viewing humans as security liabilities, HCSK provides a structured framework for transforming people into active defenders against AI manipulation.

When generative AI can create synthetic media indistinguishable from reality, manipulate emotional responses, and bypass technical security layers through social engineering, human judgment becomes the critical differentiator between security and compromise.

Humans as Firewall Zero Against AI Threats

The AIJET Principles: A Human-Empowered AI Defense Foundation

HCSK is built on five foundational principles that create a comprehensive cognitive defense framework against emerging AI threats:

Awareness

Recognizing AI-enabled threats through continuous education on deepfakes, synthetic content, and manipulation techniques. Actively detecting anomalies in AI-driven interactions.

Integrity

Validating and verifying information authenticity against trusted baselines. Establishing provenance for AI outputs and detecting AI-driven information pollution or manipulation.

Judgment

Critically evaluating AI outputs through deliberate cognitive engagement, resisting authority hallucination and manipulative content through structured reasoning techniques.

Ethics

Applying values-based decision making to AI interactions, ensuring systems uphold human dignity and prevent harm. Evaluating AI outputs against ethical norms beyond technical compliance.

Transparency

Documenting and justifying AI-related security decisions with clear audit trails. Ensuring AI systems and their outputs are explainable, traceable, and accountable.

"Think First, Verify Always" Protocol

A cognitive cybersecurity protocol that transforms AIJET principles into repeatable defensive behaviors against AI-driven threats:

1

Pause & Frame

Articulate the problem independently before querying an AI system. This preserves your cognitive autonomy and prevents over-reliance on AI recommendations.

2

Strip & Test

Remove sensitive data and run a low-risk test prompt. This prevents data leakage (OWASP LLM02) and allows evaluation of potentially hallucinated outputs (LLM05).

3

Cross-Check

Compare AI output with at least one human-curated source. This verifies information accuracy and provides a defense against authority hallucination and AI manipulation.

AI Threats & HCSK Mitigations

HCSK addresses emerging AI threats through specific controls aligned with industry standards like OWASP LLM Top 10 and MITRE ATLAS:

Prompt Injection & Data Leakage

AI systems can be manipulated to extract sensitive data or execute harmful actions via carefully crafted prompts.

A I J
Controls: AWA-02, DAT-08, ITU-11, ITU-19

Deepfake Impersonation

AI-generated synthetic media can convincingly impersonate executives and colleagues for social engineering attacks.

A I
Controls: AWA-03, AWA-07, PHY-02, INC-06

Hallucination & Misinformation

AI systems can generate false but convincing information, leading to incorrect decisions and security compromises.

I J
Controls: REM-06, ETH-08, DAT-31, ITU-12

Model Extraction & Theft

Attackers can query AI systems to reverse-engineer proprietary models or steal sensitive training data.

I J T
Controls: ITU-18, ITU-22, DAT-33, DAT-36

Data Poisoning

Malicious data can be inserted into AI training sets to introduce backdoors or biases into models.

I E
Controls: DAT-31, DAT-32, DAT-40, ETH-12

Excessive Agency

AI systems can be granted too much autonomy, leading to unintended consequences and security violations.

J E T
Controls: ETH-08, ITU-23, ETH-10, INC-07

Framework Domains

HCSK is organized into 9 key human-centric cybersecurity domains with 158 actionable controls to defend against AI threats:

1. HR Lifecycle

Securing personnel processes against AI impersonation, deepfake hiring fraud, and synthetic identity threats.

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2. Training & Awareness

Building cognitive defenses against AI manipulation through "Think First, Verify Always" and deepfake recognition training.

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3. Physical & Facility

Protecting physical spaces against AI-enhanced threats like biometric spoofing and synthetic credential fraud.

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4. Remote Work

Safeguarding distributed teams from AI-based impersonation, voice cloning, and generative AI data leakage.

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5. Data Management

Preventing data poisoning, model extraction, and unauthorized AI training using sensitive corporate data.

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6. IT Usage

Establishing safe AI interaction patterns, prompt security controls, and protections against model hijacking.

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7. Legal & Third-Party

Ensuring third-party AI systems meet security requirements and don't create supply chain risks.

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8. Incident & Continuity

Responding to AI-driven security events including deepfake crises, model evasion, and synthetic media attacks.

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9. Compliance & Ethics

Ensuring AI deployments preserve human dignity, fairness, and autonomy through ethical oversight controls.

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Bridging AI Cybersecurity Gaps

HCSK serves as the critical link between existing technical frameworks (NIST CSF) and emerging AI governance standards (NIST AI RMF), providing the missing human-empowered implementation layer needed to defend against cognitive AI threats.

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