Which of the following controls is MOST critical for protecting Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems?

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation (250–350 words) From Exact Extract from Chief Information Security Officer (CCISO) Documents:

The EC-Council CCISO Body of Knowledge emphasizes that data integrity and data quality are foundational to the security of Artificial Intelligence systems. Among the listed options, sanitized datasets represent the most critical control for protecting AI systems. CCISO guidance highlights that AI systems are highly dependent on training and operational data, and any inclusion of sensitive, biased, poisoned, or malicious data can directly compromise outcomes, decisions, and trust.

Sanitization ensures that datasets are free from sensitive personal data, malicious injections, corrupted records, and unauthorized information. CCISO materials explicitly note that risks such as data poisoning, model manipulation, and unintended disclosure are unique and heightened in AI environments, making dataset sanitization a primary preventative control.

Encryption and hashing are important supporting controls, but CCISO guidance clarifies that they do not address model bias, poisoned training data, or unsafe inference behavior. Public cloud is not a control. Therefore, sanitizing datasets before training and inference is the most critical control for AI security.