Information Technology

<p style="text-align: justify;">Digitization is growing very fast, touching every aspect of our lives. To truly apprehend the role of AI/ML in cybersecurity, we need to understand how cyber technology and its usage have evolved.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Digital era exposed us to various threats. The importance given to cybersecurity has increased tremendously more than it is now.&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">From a security professional's perspective, the need for AI and ML is strong; looking for ways to automate the task of detecting threats and flagging malicious behavior. This means moving away from manual methods, which will free up time and resources to focus on other tasks.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Again, with today's fast-moving evolution, it's impossible to deploy effective cybersecurity technology without relying heavily on machine learning. It's impossible to effectively deploy machine learning without a comprehensive, rich, and complete approach to the underlying data.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Cybercriminals have their ways to outreach potential targets in this borderless world. Over the last decade, the rise in identity theft, data breaches, and money loss increased exponentially. This is where AI/ML tools and techniques are developed to play a significant role in fighting against these cybercrimes.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">AI and ML are becoming major players, thanks to the fact that they'll stop threats in real time without impacting the business's day-to-day operations.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Further, these technologies can keep track of data that escape the human eye, including the growing volume of transactions, videos, chats, emails, and more.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Things to Consider Before Investing</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;">Investing in AI without a clear, well-established, mature cybersecurity program is like pouring money down the drain. One may fix one issue but may create more than that or overlook critical and urgent issues.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, things you may want to consider:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Identify your Business Needs</strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It's essential to first identify your business problems. AI is presumably to resolve. Assess every paint point and evaluate how AI potentially will help to resolve.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Evaluate your Company's Readiness to Adopt and Support AI</strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Discover the primary concerns and issues surrounding your business and take a step to check if your organization is ready to adopt AI.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">IT infrastructure plays a fundamental role in managing and analyzing AI data sets. AI requires rich data to perform its task effectively for you to obtain the desired result. Start with a small sample and move on from there to see how it performs.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Prioritize the Main Values of your Business</strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Once the business needs have been assessed, understand the business and financial benefits. Make sure to cover all possible AI applications as part of your short and long-term goals.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Look for Valuable AI Services</strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Developing an AI system may take a lot of time and resources. Still, there are AI service providers with the industry expertise to help you understand the data needs of AI and simplify the AI integration for you.&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Some Points to Convince Executives to Invest</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Do not Re-invent. Rather, plug In&nbsp;</strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Avoid telling the board that their entire IT investment will be replaced with advanced products. Look into an AI solution that can be plugged into the existing system rather than redo it entirely.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Show the Numbers</strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Executives need the numbers, such as data and funds saved. AI provides clear advantages here."A <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/us/articles/4780_State-of-AI-in-the-enterprise/DI_State-of-AI-in-the-enterprise-2nd-ed.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Deloitte study</a> found 83% of early AI adopters have already achieved moderate to substantial economic benefits."</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Think Long term</strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Do not look into the short-term impact of AI on your business but think beyond. Showcase the forecast of business impact and consequences of not analyzing and learning from your data.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">AI/ML may already be on most organizations' to-do lists, but one should focus on how they may complement existing systems and business plans instead of boosting the hype to obtain internal approval.&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Getting buy-in on something which is new may be challenging but neglecting the growth and adoption of technologies such as AI may cause potential repercussions.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">AI and Job Security</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;">Bayt.com Co-Founder and CTO Akram Assaf explains that "most risks with AI come from organizations abandoning their responsibilities. You can't just install a system and expect it to do the job for you. That's not how it works, and even advanced cybersecurity systems powered by AI need to be regularly maintained and updated."</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Cybersecurity providers tirelessly introduce ways to prevent and remediate threats brought by threat actors, but as soon as these measures develop, cybercriminals develop new threats to overcome this.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">To stay ahead of the curve, AI emerged as a crucial tool for cybersecurity providers. AI helps to strengthen the defensive measure and speed up the response time, but it is yet to reach perfection.&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">AI advances cybersecurity in powerful ways but will not replace human intelligence, at least for now, especially in identifying and mitigating threats.&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is a common misconception that AI will replace human intelligence. AI provides the means of improving the accuracy and efficiency of the data being analyzed. However, the human element still plays a vital role when it comes to strategizing and problem-solving.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Cybersecurity professionals are still required to differentiate between good and bad data and to tell whether the data is reliable. They need to frequently review the data to ensure relevance and accuracy. AI will produce bad analyses if the data is inaccurate, flawed, or biased.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">At least for now, AI has not reached the level of developing complex strategies or thinking critically through complicated scenarios. People may use AI to assist with thinking through the problem, but ultimately, humans will make the decisions.&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;AI will undoubtedly change the way businesses operate, creating a safer, more efficient, and data-driven working environment, and this will affect jobs, but as technology improves, machines will need to be updated and replaced.&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Jobs will always be available for those who understand the core working of AI systems.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">AI Will Replace Some Jobs</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;">AI will not replace all the jobs as the human role is vital to strengthen AI. But it is inevitable for a human to make mistakes, whereas computers, on the other hand, are not influenced by human error.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Machines react based on a set of instructions that are pre-determined and execute them out, such as data entry jobs. AI may take over such jobs required to perform routine and mundane tasks such as typing, copy-pasting, and transcribing.&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In fact, AI may complement on top of a job by providing additional eyes to verify your work. Besides, AI may assist in dangerous jobs that may put human life at stake, such as mining, factory work, and machine assembly.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Conclusion</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;">AI/ML can significantly change the cybersecurity landscape, but it can pose a blessing and a curse to businesses and customers.&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">On the other hand, AI can be very resource intensive and may not be practical in all applications.&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">More importantly, it can also serve as a new weapon for hackers who use the same or enhanced technology to improve their cyberattacks. With the growing number of various digital devices, these hackers already have the opportunity and capability to launch rapid and complex attacks. AI may soon offer the means to either successfully secure or attack.&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It may sound cliche, but it's no longer a question of, if an organization will be attacked, but when. Cybersecurity personnel needs to get out in front of this challenge by leveraging AI/ML-assisted security solutions that provide the right and fast detection and response capabilities to keep pace with these advanced cyber criminals.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><em>This article was contributed by our expert <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ts-shankar-karthikason-cgeit-cism-cciso-ccsk-csx-p-b768ba50/">Shankar Karthikason</a></em></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><h3 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Frequently Asked Questions Answered by Shankar Karthikason</span></h3><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">1. Which types of AI applications are being used in cybersecurity solutions?</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;">There is no 1 defined application of AI. AI is a technology and concept.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">2. How can cyber-attacks be prevented?</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;">Speed, Accuracy, Productivity.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">3. How can AI improve cybersecurity?</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;">Ransomware, Malware, Insider threat etc.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p>