AI For Cybersecurity

McCarthy and Minsky described Artificial Intelligence as a task performed by a machine, which if, performed by a human instead will require a great deal of intelligence. A collective data of all the behavioral qualities are required to make the precise decision. These behavioral qualities are planning, problem-solving, reasoning and manipulation.

Massive Investments In AI

Toyota invested $100 million in funds for AI; UBS is trying to bring AI to its investment bank’s operations, whereas VCs dream of substitution of all folks with AI to reduce the prices. Many people often feel embarrassed about having never used AI or because of their lack of knowledge of the subject.

Many cybersecurity vendors use this term in order to increase sales by impressing their customers. In this article, we will be exploring more about cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence collectively.

Artificial intelligence can be split broadly into two types. The two broad categorizations are given below:

• Narrow artificial intelligence

Narrow Artificial Intelligence is we see all around in computers these days, “Intelligent systems that are taught the way to do specific tasks while not being programmed the way to do so.” Unlike humans, these systems only learn the right way to do a specific task, which is why they are also called “Slim Artificial Intelligence.”

• General artificial intelligence

General Artificial Intelligence is the storing of general human abilities into software such that it can find solutions when it encounters a problem. It is sometimes referred to as “Strong Artificial Intelligence” because it can store and process a huge amount of data in a single go and come with solutions. It works just like the human brain, as it makes decisions by processing the information available to it.

Cybersecurity: An Overview

Cybersecurity refers to technologies and practices designed to safeguard networks and information from damage or unauthorized access. Cybersecurity is vital as governments, corporate and military organizations collect, process and store a vast amount of information on computers.

A considerable part of this data can be sensitive; it can be intellectual property, financial data, personal information, or any other type of data for which unauthorized access or exposure could lead to serious consequences and problems for the people collectively.

Organizations transmit a vast amount of data globally to different systems. This data, which is stored in systems can be easily attacked and extracted from the systems. This can result in problems beyond our imagination. In recent years, we have had a number of cases of data theft, which took place because of insufficient cybersecurity measures taken by the organization itself. Cybersecurity ensures that data thefts of this magnitude do not take place. It thus helps an individual with privacy.

Role of Artificial Intelligence In Cybersecurity

Cyber attackers are putting money in automation to launch strikes, while many organizations are still exploring manual efforts to combine internal security findings and contextualizing them with external threat information. With the kind of security systems, we have in place presently, it can take a longer time to sight intrusions and throughout this period, attackers will exploit vulnerabilities to compromise systems and extract knowledge.

To deal with these challenges, a number of organizations are exploring the employment of AI in their regular cyber risk operations. The role of artificial intelligence in cybersecurity cannot be negated.

Through AI, the new exploits and weaknesses can quickly be identified and analyzed to help mitigate further attacks. It has the ability to minimize the pressure on humans. They are alerted as soon as an intrusion is detected and when their interference is required.

Advantages Of Artificial Intelligence In Cybersecurity

• AI can be made Smarter

A useful analogy is to think about the best professionals working for your organization. If you use this employee to train your machine learning and artificial intelligence programs, the AI will be as smart as your star employees. Now, if you take the time to train your machine learning and artificial intelligence programs with your 100 best employees, the outcome will be a solution which is as smart as the brain of the 100 best employees put together. artificial intelligence vs machine learning was also a trending topic in recent years.

• AI never takes a day off

One of the few advantages of Artificial Intelligence in cybersecurity is that AI never takes a day off or gets tired after hours of continuous work. Thus, we can conclude here, that AI helps in doing the job with the maximum efficiency at the maximum possible rate with the best quality products.

Prevention of cyber-threats and the avoidance of attacks represent the ideal, but it is almost inevitable that stop these incidents from occurring. And once they do, a fast response is crucial, both in minimizing the harm caused by the assault and in recovering from its effects. With a “thinking machine”, a fast response might be written into its system.

• AI swiftly spots the threats

Algorithms dedicated to spotting potential threats might be enforced in real time, to provide a flash by moment response to an attack. Existing security software system databases and algorithms have a restricted scope and are typically unable to keep up the pace with the fast development and mutation of new threat vectors.

Adaptive or machine learning algorithms, designed into an intelligent security system have the potential to spot and answer threats as they occur — even dynamic ones. And these intelligent security devices might have the inherent ability to keep on learning, to check current pools of data and extrapolate from them, to anticipate future threats and acceptable responses.

Impact of Artificial Intelligence On Cyber Security

• Boosts the scale of resistance

Artificial Intelligence also has the potential to increase the scale of resistance that a system has to ongoing attacks. If a corporation uses a number of hardware devices such as desktops and mobile phones to communicate and transfer information, the chances of a cyber-assault to extract information from the system are pretty high.

• Enabled to counter every incoming threat

To respond to such an assault, machine-driven mechanisms backed by AI can be deployed to counter each incoming threat because it presents itself and takes counter measures in real time. A number of impacts of artificial intelligence on cybersecurity are observed.

• Plotting an effective strategy against threats

In the usual security set-up, the real-time response to threats is often hampered by speed and sometimes the changing nature of the attack itself. So a large amount of data is needed to be analyzed in order to formulate a response and to plot out a proper strategy.

The Significance of AI in Cyber Security

Human security analysts generally can’t handle these tasks alone and need some extent of automation in their cyber-threat response systems. In the present days, AI systems with their machine learning algorithms and real-time counter-measures are first of the stages in what guarantees to be an evolving security landscape.

There are a number of measures taken by governments worldwide based on Artificial Intelligence. Governments these days are using AI components in their systems to check for any threat and to eliminate it. This is done using Artificial Intelligence.

Although it sounds simple, it is a very complex process and requires hundreds of people to work on the project. The huge number of people working on the project gives an idea about the importance of AI in cybersecurity. This ensures that the nation’s security is not threatened.

Examples Of Artificial Intelligence In Cyber Security

On October 2016, the White House released a report on “Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence.” This report talked about the strategies we should be employed to manage AI. Events were organized to discuss the technology so that more and more people could be made aware of it and that new technologies could come up.

These conferences have helped dramatically as many people who were not aware of the topic, now have full-fledged knowledge of it. It has also led to a number of practical applications of AI which is being seen as the future of the world.

Since technology is relatively new, we are not very sure about its future. Scientists have no idea what problems could come up in the future and how they would be dealing with it. This confusion is in place even after the world has seen so many examples of artificial intelligence in cybersecurity.

In the future, AI will require some kind of hi-tech monitoring to ensure that it performs the constructive tasks it is meant to perform and not become a tool of destruction. AI should be developed in such a manner that they are prone to cyber attacks.

Words Of A Chief Scientist

A chief scientist once said in an interview that an AV researcher used to see 10,000 viruses in their whole career. However, these days they encounter more than 500,000 each day. He said that his security firm employs Artificial Intelligence to prevent such attacks. Apart from that, AI as a security tool can prove helpful in the present time, with the lack of human resources that the cybersecurity industry is currently facing. More than 40% of the organizations worldwide — claim that they are suffering from a shortage of talented professionals in web security.

Moving Forward

There are a number of issues which we face when dealing with AI and for implementing it every organization must need strong artificial intelligence solutions. There are ethical and legal issues to consider, such as who will bear the responsibility for the actions of an autonomous machine which decides by itself the action it is going to take.

However, with the vast variety of advantages that it offers, the future of AI in cyber security looks promising. To see how it changes the world in the coming days, we would have to wait for a couple of years, maybe decades.