Although artificial intelligence (AI) is not new, it’s become the focus of many mainstream conversations thanks to the launch of high-profile generative AI like ChatGPT and Dall-E. So how can cybersecurity professionals benefit from using AI in their work?
Curating threat intelligence
Cybersecurity threats are constantly evolving, and the research and solutions to tackle them have to keep pace. That means there is a lot of information for cybersecurity professionals to keep on top of. AI can curate threat intelligence from millions of research papers, blogs and news stories and help you quickly identify the information that is most relevant. This is particularly helpful for small, under-resourced security teams.
Identifying threats more quickly
Because AI is able to quickly analyse large volumes of data, it can be used to detect and identify anomalous patterns and vulnerabilities within extensive networks much more quickly, which can prevent attacks from happening, or at worst, can help security teams react faster.
Automating time-consuming tasks
There can be many time-consuming – but essential – tasks that cybersecurity teams need to do regularly. AI-powered automation can help them do them faster and, according to IBM, can save more than 14 weeks by automating threat detection and response.
Tackling bots
Bots make up a large percentage of internet traffic and can pose a threat to your business. For example, they can take over accounts using stolen credentials, create bogus accounts and potentially steal data. The sheer volume means a manual response is almost pointless. Only AI can help to monitor and analyse them quickly enough.
AI can become more intelligent over time
AI, such as machine learning (ML), also has the benefit of learning from the data it is given and can become more intelligent – and therefore effective – over time. This means it can learn to detect abnormalities in network operations more quickly, without additional human intervention.
Overall, there are many benefits to using AI to enhance cybersecurity. This is becoming increasingly important as cybercriminals are also leveraging it in their activities.