A few decades ago, cybersecurity was not a major Business concern when designing systems and interacting with the internet. However, nowadays we cannot do much without the systems and internet as most things we do starting from emailing, instant messaging, banking, shopping, and even traveling cannot be efficiently achieved without the systems and the internet. The simplification of life using technology has increased the cyber-attacking surface for many organizations.
ICT departments are putting in place defense mechanisms to protect the assets against cyber-attacks, but cyber-criminals are changing the attacking tricks in that they no longer spend time trying to break the organization’s cybersecurity defense mechanisms. They have discovered that it is now easier to trick users of the systems through a technique called social engineering. As cyberattacks grow in intensity, traditional safeguards are falling behind, and a dawn of cybersecurity driven by artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the way we detect, respond to, and prevent cyber threats. It is important to note that cybercriminals are also taking advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) to attack organisations.
AI has changed the way organizations are looking at finding solutions to their problems. Two areas that have been heavily affected are the automation of business processes to make the organization efficient and the second is in cyberspace to respond to cyber threats. In relation to cybersecurity, AI has:
Most organizations have put in place AI threat detection systems to enhance their cyber defenses and also have the capability to perform round-the-clock monitoring of networks and systems for potential malicious activity. AI has a built-in mechanism that allows It to detect high-risk patterns through analysis of network traffic, log files, and user behavior.
AI is capable of cross-referencing numerous data sources such as dark web forums, social media, and threat intelligence feeds to detect new threats and vulnerabilities. This gives an advantage to organizations as it keeps them updated with the public sentiments, especially by cyber criminals and allows them to quickly take action before any potential risk occurs.
AI can help automate many of the routine, mundane tasks that security teams need to perform when responding to an incident (for example, incident triage and investigation). Using historical attack data it can identify the root cause of attacks and suggest remediation actions to be taken.
Automated threat remediation has a lot of potential as an application for AI in cybersecurity. AI is a reliable resource to decrease response time, and it mitigates the impact of attacks by making Automation of routine tasks. The advantage of AI-powered systems is the provision of AI-driven tools that automatically identify and block suspicious incoming traffic based on its origin, making sure that malware IPs, domains, and URLs cannot reach their ultimate targets.
AI has the capability to also automatically apply security patches to the systems that are flagged vulnerable and this helps in reducing exploits.
Artificial intelligence provides organizations with the capabilities to launch automated actions related to the incident, including notifying security personnel of the malicious robot activities; automatically launching emergency operating procedures; and opening forensic investigations. AI achieves this by using a strategy that identifies odd behavior that may signal a cyberattack. AI can deviate from normal behavior by analyzing large volumes of data and flagging any potential threats. Anomaly detection can be used in a number of elements within cybersecurity including:
AI provides the capabilities to detect abnormal patterns in the flow of data over networks, whether related to massive transports or typical ports being utilized suggesting potential malicious activities. These activities can be abnormal user activity, like attempting to access sensitive information after work hours or logging in from unusual geographic areas.
AI has the capability to detect abnormal system activities, such as failed logins or unauthorized access to system files.
It’s such abilities posed by AI that give it the ability to automatically learn the organization's environment, understand what normal and abnormal activity is, and make decisions to respond to an incident.
The big question is how far AI can be used for offensive and defensive purposes to win the war against cybercrime. What are the future expectations of AI in Cybersecurity? There is a need for continuous research in AI to discover other groundbreaking applications out there in Cybersecurity since AI is an increasing technology. These include a few of the trends that are on the rise like:
It is important to state that you can never be 100% secure from cyber-attacks, therefore, though the promise of AI to improve cybersecurity is large, it is not a magic bullet. AI-based systems will perform to the extent of the data and algorithms they run. The need now is for training AI systems on data that must be of high quality and updated with new events.
Therefore, AI is revolutionizing how people view cyber security. Targeted settings have been made possible by AI to ensure that essential organizational assets are protected from the emerging evolutions that threaten them, by automating repetitive jobs, improving identification of threats and allowing for preventive measures. But as the open face of AI expands, so shall its firm part in guaranteeing our Digital agenda.
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