Artificial Intelligence (AI) necessary to respond to cyberattacks

Being born in the late 70s, it's been amazing to watch the evolution of computers, the Internet, cyber and the like. I remember sitting in my junior high computer class—7th grade, I believe. Working with Basic on an Apple 2e, I created white coding on a black screen that made a man (stick figure) jump, dance and run when the user got the correct answer to the math problem presented on the screen. That, my friends, was high tech!

Now, the graphics are realistic and some even interact with voice; data is being produced and shared at the rate of zettabytes; and computers are turning into machine learners, all of which is absolutely amazing but at the same time scary as bad people have turned it into a free-for-all of mass hacking that is detrimental to people and society.

Human security experts work tirelessly each and every day to keep people like you and me, and the world safe; however, being human, they have their limits. For example, cybersecurity involves repetitiveness and tediousness, scouring through big data to identify anomalous data points; long, exhausting hours of data analysis; and relentlessly monitoring data going in and out of enterprise networks. Enter the age of artificial intelligence (AI) penetrating into the cyber realm in terms of security, obviously known collectively as cybersecurity. Working along-side humans, AI can complement cybersecurity by performing the repetitive, tedious tasks; it can be trained to take predefined steps against attacks and learn the most ideal responses going forward; and AI is fast and accurate with data analysis. This enables and empowers human security experts to use their talents and skills on other projects to further enhance cybersecurity.

Capgemini, a global leader in consulting, technology services and digital transformation, recently published “Reinventing Cybersecurity with Artificial Intelligence Report,” finding 61 percent of enterprises said they cannot detect breach attempts today without the use of AI technologies. That's over half of the 850 senior executives surveyed from IT information security, cybersecurity and IT operations in seven sectors across 10 countries. And if that's not eye-opening enough, check out these findings:

• 69 percent believe AI will be necessary to respond to cyberattacks;
• 73 percent are testing AI use cases for cybersecurity;
• 64 percent said AI lowers the cost and reduces overall time taken to detect and respond to breaches by 12 percent; and
• 56 percent said their cybersecurity analysts are overwhelmed and approximately 23 percent are not able to successfully investigate all identified incidents.

With numbers like these, it's easy to see AI and machine learning are essential to cybersecurity now and into the future. So, here at SSN, we've taken a huge step to bring you the latest and greats cybersecurity news with the addition of a “cybersecurity” tab on our website. Yep, that's right � a whole section dedicated to all things cybersecurity!

To get a taste of our cybersecurity content check out the articles “Federal government aims to modernize physical security practices” and “Data forensics: time is of the essence,” and as always, we value your feedback.