The cyberattack surface in the modern enterprise environment is continuing to grow rapidly. It means analyzing and optimizing an organization’s security posture needs more than human intervention. Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are becoming vital components of information security. These technologies are capable of analyzing massive data sets swiftly and tracking down a variety of cyberattacks, ranging from malware exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities to detecting risky behavior leading to phishing attacks.
As cyber-attacks are growing in complexity and volume, AI is helping under-resourced security analysts ahead of threats. Artificial intelligence technologies like Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning provide insights to cut through the noise of regular alerts, reducing the response time drastically.
AI-based tools for cybersecurity have turned up to help security teams reduce data breach risk and optimize their security posture effectively and efficiently. Security professionals require strong support from advanced technologies and intelligence machines to work efficiently and protect their organizations from cyber attacks.
In this article, we will review the use of artificial intelligence in cybersecurity and the benefits of integrating AI with cybersecurity.
Why do cybersecurity solutions need artificial intelligence?
Cybersecurity experts continuously augment security tools with advanced technologies to detect threats in real-time and reduce remediation time. In particular, they leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence to
- Improve detection of advanced threats
- Automate threat hunting
- Manage a rapidly-growing digital infrastructure
- Detect vulnerabilities in networks and systems
Artificial intelligence helps automate repetitive tasks, reduces the time for investigating attacks, and works faster and more efficiently than traditional security systems.
AI Integration in Cybersecurity
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a critical asset for organizations using automation to increase their productivity and optimize processes. One of the crucial applications leveraging AI today is cybersecurity or data security. This advanced technology can be a powerful tool to protect organizations from potential cyber threats and risks.
Here are the main functions of artificial intelligence in cybersecurity.
- Detection_ Organizations are leveraging artificial intelligence techniques to detect cyber attacks. According to research, more than 50 percent of organizations implementing AI-based security solutions use it for detection purposes. It is due to unique AI capabilities for identifying irregular traffic through deep learning or machine learning.
- Prediction_ Many organizations use artificial intelligence for cyber threats prediction. It is done by scanning through data and information and making predictions based on the system’s training. Companies adopting AI for prediction can use it to identify critical vulnerabilities, continually improve their network defenses against potential attacks, and automatically identify their network topology and assets.
- Response_ The ways of responding to cyber threats are evolving continuously. Businesses can use artificial intelligence to detect cyber attacks and stop them before disruptions. They can automate the creation of virtual patches for an identified threat or develop advanced protection mechanisms in real-time. Artificial intelligence helps businesses improve their threat response time, lower costs, and respond to data breaches regardless of modalities, forms, or certain features in which it is leveraged.
Advantages of Artificial Intelligence in Cybersecurity
AI comes with a lot of benefits and applications in different areas, and cybersecurity is one of them. With the rapid increase of smart devices and fast-evolving cyber attacks, AI and machine learning can help detect cyber threats, automate threat detection, and respond effectively. Here are a few advantages of leveraging artificial intelligence in cyber security.
1. Identifying new threats
AI can be leveraged to spot potential cyber threats and malicious activities. The conventional software system may not keep pace with the sheer number of advanced threats. Using sophisticated algorithms, AI systems can detect malware, detect suspicious behavior, and run pattern recognition. Artificial intelligence enables predictive intelligence with natural language processing, curating data on its own by scraping through news, articles, and research on cyber threats.
It provides intelligence to the latest attacks, anomalies, and prevention techniques. Because cybercriminals follow trends, they change their techniques constantly. AI-based systems can provide the latest knowledge of industry-specific and global threats to prioritize decisions based on various factors.
2. Prediction of breach risks
AI-based systems help determine the IT assets, which is a detailed and accurate record of applications, devices, and users with different access levels to various systems. Considering the threat exposure and asset inventory, AI systems can predict how and where a system is most likely to be compromised. These systems allow you to plan ahead of time and allocate resources towards the most vulnerable areas. Prescriptive insights through AI-based analysis allow you to configure and optimize processes and controls to reinforce cyber resilience.
3. Better vulnerability management
Vulnerability management is essential for the security of a company’s IT infrastructure. An average company deals with several cyber risks. Therefore, it is required to detect, identify, assess, and prevent those risks and make organizations safe from cyber threats. Analyzing and evaluating the existing cybersecurity measures using artificial intelligence can help in vulnerability management.
AI-based solutions help organizations assess systems quicker than cybersecurity personnel by increasing their problem-solving capabilities. It helps identify weak points and vulnerabilities in an organization’s network and computer systems and helps organizations focus on essential security tasks. AI makes it possible to manage flaws and secure business systems in time.
4. Accelerate detection and response time
Cyber threat detection is the initial step in protecting your organization from cyber threats. It’s better to detect things like untrusted data and vulnerable systems quickly. It will protect you from irreversible damage to your organization. The best way to identify and respond to cyber threats in time is by integrating artificial intelligence with cybersecurity. AI-based solutions scan your entire network and systems and check for potential threats. Unlike humans, AI-based systems detect threats ahead of time and simplify your security operations.
5. Better endpoint protection
The number of devices utilized for remote work is increasing rapidly, and artificial intelligence plays a crucial role in securing those endpoints. Virtual Private Networks and anti-virus solutions can protect against malware and ransomware attacks to remote devices and networks, but they are often signature-based. Therefore to stay protected against cyberattacks, it is required to keep up with the signature definitions.
However, AI-driven endpoint protections use a different approach. It established a baseline of behavior for an endpoint using repeated training processes. If something suspicious happens, AI can detect it and take action by sending alerts to the technician or reverting to a safe state. It provides proactive security against cyber threats instead of waiting for signature updates.
The use of artificial intelligence by cybercriminals
Artificial intelligence is a double-edged sword. However, it can be used as a robust and proactive tool for cybersecurity. But on the offensive side, cybercriminals use it to increase the effectiveness and precision of attacks. Organizations leveraging AI into their cybersecurity systems are restricted to specific regulations, limiting the scope of their use. However, in contrast, criminals have an unlimited playing field that makes it easier for them to use this technology for harmful purposes.
One of the most common techniques used by criminals is ‘Fuzzing’. It is used to detect vulnerabilities in complex systems. This method intends to crash systems, cause buffer overflows, exceptions, memory errors, and expose system flaws. The use of artificial intelligence with this technique increases the efficiency and precision of attacks, creating a devastating threat. Moreover, AI can also be utilized with phishing attacks. It helps to increase the speed of navigating data and reduce traffic. It helps criminals extract necessary information and make the attack harder to detect.
How to improve cybersecurity for AI?
AI-based systems need to be safe and secure throughout the operational lifespan. Machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms help identify and protect against computer-based threats and vulnerabilities by automating the detection and response. Conversely, concerns have been raised that leveraging artificial intelligence for offensive purposes can make these attacks difficult to block.
It is quite challenging to secure AI systems. Implementing AI security solutions for responding to rapidly-evolving threats makes the need to protect AI systems themselves. To rely on AI for detecting and responding to attacks, it’s essential to protect algorithms from interference, misuse, and compromise. Increasing reliance on AI for complex operations and critical services not only creates greater incentives for criminals to target those algorithms but also causes severe consequences of each successful attack.
Organizations should make policies to explore critical issues for improving the security and safety of AI-based solutions. Thorough documentation of AI-based systems enables organizations to develop efficient testing and auditing measures and meaningful certification programs to guide AI developers.
Final Words
The use of AI-based solutions is an ongoing trend in cybersecurity. The reason is that artificial intelligence and machine learning gives an exciting potential to help organizations establish robust and efficient cybersecurity infrastructure with advanced analytics, task automation, and self-learning algorithms. However, despite a wide range of benefits, integrating artificial intelligence in cybersecurity has some pitfalls as well.
Establishing AI-based solutions is a critical process that needs extensive resources, thorough research and planning, and strong development and testing skills. But these challenges can be reduced with the human touch, which is essential to ensure AI-based security systems are not causing security problems. Placing human security experts with AI security systems can help ensure the networks and systems are not being manipulated or making wrong decisions.