Cybersecurity is one of the most pressing and challenging issues of our digital age. As we increasingly rely on online systems and services for our personal, professional, and social activities, we also expose ourselves to various cyber threats and risks. Cyberattacks can compromise our privacy, security, identity, reputation, assets, and even our physical safety. According to a report by Cybersecurity Ventures, cybercrime is expected to cost the world $10.5 trillion annually by 2025up from $3 trillion in 20152.
To combat these cyber threats, we need more effective and efficient cybersecurity solutions that can protect our online systems and data from unauthorized access, manipulation, or destruction. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) comes in. AI is the branch of computer science that aims to create machines or software that can perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as reasoning, learning, decision making, perception, communication, creativity, etc. AI has the potential to transform and improve cybersecurity in various ways, such as:
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- Automating cyber threat detection and response: AI can help us analyze large volumes of data generated by online systems and devices to identify patterns, anomalies, and indicators of compromise. AI can also help us respond to cyberattacks faster and more effectively by generating alerts, blocking malicious traffic, isolating infected devices, or even launching countermeasures. For example, Fortinet’s FortiAI solution uses self-learning deep neural networks to detect and classify malware in real time
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- Enhancing cyber resilience and recovery: AI can help us improve the robustness and reliability of our online systems and services by enabling self-healing, self-optimizing, and self-adapting capabilities. AI can also help us recover from cyber incidents more quickly and easily by restoring data, repairing damage, or even creating backups or clones. For example, IBM’s Resilient Incident Response Platform uses AI to orchestrate and automate incident response workflows
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- Empowering cyber defense and innovation: AI can help us develop new and better cybersecurity solutions that can cope with the complexity and diversity of cyber threats and environments. AI can also help us leverage the power and potential of other emerging technologies, such as cloud computing, blockchain, quantum computing, etc., to enhance our cybersecurity capabilities. For example, Microsoft’s Azure Sentinel is a cloud-native security information and event management (SIEM) platform that uses AI to collect and analyze data from various sources
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- Educating and engaging cyber users and stakeholders: AI can help us raise awareness and understanding of cybersecurity issues and best practices among online users and stakeholders. AI can also help us foster a culture of responsibility, transparency, accountability, and collaboration in cybersecurity matters. For example, Google’s Phishing Quiz uses AI to test users’ ability to spot phishing emails
However, AI is not a silver bullet for cybersecurity. AI also poses some challenges and risks for cybersecurity, such as:
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- Misusing or abusing AI for cyberattacks: AI can be used by malicious actors to launch more sophisticated and effective cyberattacks that can evade detection or attribution. AI can also be used to create or enhance cyber weapons or tools that can exploit vulnerabilities or cause harm. For example, deepfakes are synthetic media created by AI that can manipulate images, videos, or audio to impersonate or deceive people.
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- Ensuring the security and ethics of AI systems: AI systems themselves can be vulnerable to cyberattacks that can compromise their integrity, availability, or confidentiality. AI systems can also be biased, unfair, or unethical in their design, development, or deployment. For example, adversarial attacks are techniques that can fool or manipulate AI systems by adding subtle perturbations or noise to their inputs.
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- Balancing the trade-offs between security and other values: AI systems can have positive or negative impacts on other values or interests that are important for online users and stakeholders, such as privacy, freedom, innovation, etc. For example, privacy-preserving AI techniques are methods that can protect the privacy of data or users while enabling AI applications or services.
Therefore, it is essential and urgent to ensure the safety and alignment of AI systems with human values and goals. To achieve this, we need to collaborate and coordinate among researchers, policymakers, stakeholders, and the general public on how to develop and deploy AI systems for cybersecurity in a responsible, trustworthy, and inclusive manner.
In conclusion, we have discussed how AI will improve cybersecurity in various ways, but also how it will pose some challenges and risks for cybersecurity. We have also highlighted the importance and urgency of ensuring the safety and alignment of AI systems with human values and goals. We hope this article has provided you with some insights and inspiration on how AI will improve cybersecurity: protecting our digital lives in an age of hacking and data breaches.
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