What does AI mean
for cyber security?
by Francesca Taylor, Marketing Communications Executive, YUDU
Few topics seem to be as popular in the world of tech than Artificial Intelligence. Along with blockchain and cryptocurrency, you’d be hard pressed to find an IT-related conference or magazine that doesn’t feature AI in some capacity. Its ability to relentlessly carry out its task without input from its human handlers has sparked the imaginations of those who worry about the onward march of automation. But for some, it represents a ‘silver bullet’ against the legions of hackers probing our websites and inboxes for weaknesses.
So why has AI become such a hot topic?
‘Being cynical – people have watched too many Hollywood techno-thrillers,’ says Barnaby Davies, Customer Success Advisor at DocAuthority. He raises a good point - the media has made AI a recognisable science fiction trope. From the mechanical assassins of ‘The Terminator’ series to the more benevolent ‘Wall-E’, artificial intelligence is firmly embedded in popular culture.
However, before we consign Artificial Intelligence to the realm of dystopian films, we do need to acknowledge that it has real world potential for cyber security. The ability to rapidly process huge swathes of data is essential, and being able to automate certain tasks from this data is vital in an industry desperately lacking in human resources. In the US alone there are an estimated 300,000 vacant cyber security positions. Research has shown that cyber security professionals are finding their jobs harder now than 2 years ago, with the growing cyber threat and lack of skilled workers rising to meet the demand cited as reasons for this. For them, automation through AI could help pick up the slack. However: ‘Being even more cynical,’
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continues Barnaby, ‘
...people are keen to find something to do their work and carry the blame when it goes wrong.’
The fact is, we need cyber security professionals more than ever before. 52% of all crimes reported to the London Met police are cyber-related, and in 2017 cyber crime cost UK businesses £30 million. Despite the launch of GDPR, breaches continue to happen and companies are still struggling to ramp up their security enough to keep out the malicious bots and hackers. In fact, one of the greatest problems with cyber security is that every single line of our defences needs to be water- tight, whereas the hackers only need to succeed once: they have the advantage.
Where AI could help is in offering a more proactive approach. Rather
than
looking for what’s wrong (spotting malware), it can work by filtering what comes through your servers and comparing that to a dataset that makes up its knowledge of ‘goodware’ - the kind of data, emails etc that are benign and expected. By feeding it a dataset of ‘safe’ emails, user behaviour etc, AI can then detect when something doesn’t fit the mold. Rather than battening down the hatches, AI can help you scan for anything abnormal.
AI alone is not a cyber security strategy though. As cyber crime continues to increase, it will not be long before hackers are also able to manipulate AIs for nefarious purposes. In order to work, AI needs to be fed the data that will become its frame of reference. If that data is tampered with, then the AI could be rendered useless. For example, by relabelling phishing emails as ‘not spam’, hackers can then teach an AI that their emails are
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