June 6, 2023

Top Reasons Why AI is Evolving Cybersecurity

Top Reasons Why AI is Evolving Cybersecurity

Introduction

With new advances in IT, we are witnessing a rise of cybersecurity threats. Hackers have been using faster and more advanced techniques to attack bigger infrastructures which is creating an increased demand for Cybersecurity professionals who need ways on detecting these cyber attacks as they happen live within their system

With recent technological changes coming from Information Technology (IT), there has been increasing attacks by hackers with newer strategies than before such as Artificial Intelligence techniques that interact directly with infected machines or malware without human interference- this poses serious concern about safety not just here at home but also internationally where companies rely heavily upon global networks

AI is used for attacking as well as defending.  As mentioned in the article written by Symmetry, “On the attack side AI is used to improve the sophistication and scope of their attacks. On the defensive side, AI is used to enhance the defensive strategies, so that the defense systems become more robust, flexible, and efficient, which involves being adaptive with changes in the environment to decrease the impacts occurred.” 

The Impact of AI on Cybersecurity

AI in simple terms is the process of teaching machines how to think, learn and solve problems. AI can be designed to solve complex issues that humans alone are unable to solve. For example, the basic task of reading daily logs can be accomplished quicker and more efficiently given the task to AI.

In recent years there has been an explosion of new web applications, big data, cloud storage technologies just to name a few. These advancements in technology are changing the way people live their daily lives providing many benefits, however with those benefits come an alarming rate of cybersecurity threats. These threats include:

  • Big Data makes it impossible for a human to manually analyze the data, simply put, there is too much data being generated for any one person of a team to digest.
  • Cyber attacks are happening about 2,244 per day globally (Source: University of Maryland). Due to the volume of threats taking place, it is impossible to keep up without the use of AI.
  • Cyber threats are more common than ever, and they spread quicker, infect easier, and evade more than before.

To train a team of cybersecurity professionals to handle these threats is time-consuming and expensive. AI-based technology is expected to handle the explosion of cybersecurity issues. 


Benefits of AI on Cybersecurity

AI has unmatchable automation and data analysis capabilities. AI can analyze large amounts of data efficiently, with speed and accuracy. AI can learn and build on what it knows and can understand past threats to identify similar attacks in the future, even if their patterns change (Symmetry, 2020). We have reached the point where cybersecurity professionals are unable to keep up with the number of threats, AI is now required.

Uses of AI

  • AI can discover new and sophisticated changes in attack flexibility. Conventional technology focuses on the past and depends on known attacks and cannot address new threats.
  • AI can handle the volume of data. AI can better network security by using autonomous security systems to detect attacks and respond to breaches. Security professionals are overwhelmed and cannot keep up, track, and identify attacks because there are too many. Using AI automatically detects and responds to threats reducing the workload and assist in detecting threats more effectively than other methods (Symmetry, 2020).
  • AI systems learn and remember which allows them to respond to threats more efficiently. AI detects threats based on application behavior and a whole network’s activity. AI security systems keep track of regular network traffic and behavior and make a baseline of what is normal (Symmetry, 2020).


AI techniques seem an up-and-coming area of research that enhances the security measures for cyberspace (Symmetry, 2020). AI is being used to handle threats, computational intelligence, neural networks, artificial immune systems, data mining, pattern recognition, heuristics, machine learning, deep learning, and others (Symmetry, 2020).


Conclusion


Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the hot topic of the day for organizations looking to improve their IT security. It is the best option to protect their company’s information including all departments and the employees who work for them. There are different options for different companies’ operations in different industries that need specific security measures in place. 

Some companies operating in different industries need specific security measures in place. Some companies will utilize AI software applications to analyze network data to identify irregularities and others will focus on abnormal behavior patterns. Cybersecurity that uses machine learning and AI technologies will reduce the time it takes to locate threats and will be able to quickly respond. Cybersecurity companies are using AI and machine learning (ML) to accommodate the large number of attacks taking place that have become virtually impossible for human employees or traditional security software.

Information security principles of success are to protect the confidentiality of data, preserve its integrity and promote availability. It is important for organizations' information managers to understand these principles when creating a plan that can safeguard them from unwarranted attacks by considering who has access rights as well as which system vulnerabilities exist in order to execute an effective strategy against cybercrime.



References

Truong Cong Thanh. 2020. Symmetry. Artificial Intelligence in the Cyber Domain: Offensive and Defense. symmetry-12-00410-v2.pdf

Additional references I used for SEO

11 Tips to Optimize Your Blog Posts for SEO like a Pro (Checklist)

https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/blog-seo-tips-optimize-your-blog-posts-for-seo/

Search Engine Land

https://searchengineland.com/8-free-keyword-research-tools-for-seo-that-beat-their-paid-alternatives-318091

SEO PowerSuite

https://www.link-assistant.com/rank-tracker/download-success.html



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