Even if cybercriminals haven’t quite cracked machine learning yet, honest developers and security testers should get onboard the AI train immediately. It may be the best thing for mobile app security since the dawn of the mobile OS and the apps that run on it.

Did the hackers get there first? After using obfuscation and automation to mutate their malware, artificial intelligence is the natural next step for attackers too. But even if cybercriminals haven’t quite cracked machine learning yet, honest developers and security testers should get onboard the AI train immediately. It may be the best thing for mobile app security since the dawn of the mobile OS and the apps that run on it.

While artificial intelligence is about being smart (obviously), it is also about being fast, especially in a context like mobile security. Speed is of the essence, because enterprises and vendors trying to keep data and users safe face the following two major problems. First, attackers have already accelerated their efforts to penetrate, exfiltrate, and annihilate, thanks to automation among other things. Second, there are too few competent human security experts to keep up with the bad guys.

Factor in the delays that come from manual testing methods, and it rapidly becomes clear that unless some other solution is found, mobile security testing performance will continue to diverge from requirements, and alarmingly so. Agile mobile app development cycles inside an enterprise and the constant onslaught of new versions of apps from external providers mean that waiting days (or even weeks) for test reports is no longer possible.

Enter AI and specifically machine learning. By rapidly analyzing large quantities of data and mobile applications, Mi3 Security’s machine learning software automatically recognizes mobile app risks, both existing and emerging. This already helps enterprises to get ahead of the game. Rather than being reactive in dealing with threats, they can move to being proactive in their mobile app security by reducing or eliminating risks. Or as we like to say, if you can identify the risk, you can avoid the threat.

By putting power behind the machine learning, results come back in minutes. Enterprises and end-users know right away if an app is safe enough to use. The machine learning in Mi3 Security’s products is designed to give a highly reliable clear “Pass/Fail” or “In or Out” conclusion for each test, simplifying the lives of development teams and enterprise IT security engineers everywhere.

Whether AI is or not the final frontier for mobile security remains to be seen. However, so far, we’ve probably only scratched the surface of how artificial intelligence could be used to build security into mobile apps, test them rapidly and reliably, and track attacks back to their attackers.

You can see a rundown of which companies are doing what with artificial intelligence and security in Cybersecurity’s Next Frontier: 80+ Companies Using Artificial Intelligence To Secure The Future In One Infographic. No need for extra intelligence to figure out that Mi3 Security among the top 5 mobile security companies listed there (of course!).