Artificial Intelligence: A Friend or Foe for Cyber Security?

Overview

While the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities has potential to lead to improvements in cyber security, it simultaneously offers a powerful tool for cyber attackers.

As the use of AI and the speed of its development rapidly increases, we investigate its role in cyber security and how the role of AI may evolve in the future.

How can AI help?

AI has the potential to greatly improve cyber security. When implemented properly, AI can vastly increase the efficiency and efficacy of threat intelligence systems, meaning abnormal behaviour or vulnerabilities across the network can be identified quicker and with a greater degree of accuracy.

AI can also be a useful tool in regard to authentication. For example, facial recognition and tools such as CAPTCHA can help organisations quickly and efficiently assess whether an attempted login is by authorised personnel.

Furthermore, AI is also capable of rapidly analysing vast data sets, saving organisation’s time and money by reducing the number of human-led, time-consuming tasks. In a world where there is a 3.4 million shortfall in cyber security workers, the use of AI can arguably be seen to mitigate against this by augmenting under-resourced security operations.

Why does AI present a new threat?

The main risk that AI presents to cyber security is an overreliance on its abilities. Entrusting AI to make decisions or take actions that would otherwise be made by a human can be dangerous and cause detriment to your business if not 100% accurate. This overreliance on AI could also lead to threats not being identified or being identified incorrectly. This speaks to the fact that human-led monitoring remains a vital component of any comprehensive cyber security system.

In addition, while artificial intelligence may be able to identify certain types of security breaches, cyber attackers are always finding new ways to get around threat intelligence systems; including using AI technology to generate more advanced attacks. For example, Europol warn of AI increasing the sophistication of malware attacks such as ransomware and increasing the capacity of cyber criminals to quickly identify vulnerabilities.

How can Telesoft help?

At Telesoft, we recognise that any robust cyber security system should be a partnership between both artificial and human intelligence. That’s why we offer 24/7 Human-Led Threat Hunting as part of our Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service.

Our expert cyber analysts will have eyes on your network all day, every day. We will use a plethora of detection methodologies, including machine learning, to identify malicious or suspicious activity on your network. We help organisations to feel reassurance by ensuring your network is being overlook by our specialist team of analysts, based in our UK Security Operations Centre (SOC).

With organisations of all sizes at an increased risk of a cyber-attack, Andrew Marsh, Head of IT & Security here at Telesoft, confirms the need for a synthesis between human and machine learning:

‘What is needed is a greater visibility at every layer of the network and a security solution that combines human and technological intelligence, with proactive and continual monitoring. Our MDR solution addresses this need.’

Interested in protecting your organisation? Contact us.