The Rise of AI in Cybersecurity: Protecting Businesses from Emerging Cyber Threats

Cyber-attacks on businesses are not going to stop anytime. They will become more vulnerable with time especially, if these businesses are a part of the supply chain as producers, retailers, vendors, or transportation companies. These businesses are one among the 45% of organizations to be impacted by data breaches by 2025 as per Gartner’s prediction. What’s scarier is that cybercriminals are using the latest technologies to steal businesses’ valuable data, and the use of artificial intelligence is the favourite for hacking.

But on a good note, businesses can also use AI in cybersecurity to protect their sensitive information from hackers. Along with machine learning techniques, businesses can augment their existing cybersecurity measures to proactively identify threats and respond in real-time.

We will discuss how artificial intelligence is helping in this but before we begin, here is a quick glimpse of some important statistics on cyber security.

Recent Statistics on Cyber Security You Should Know

• Data breaches cost $4.35 million globally, on average, in 2022.

• On the other hand, companies that have implemented AI in their cybersecurity measures saved $3.05 million in 2022. Cybersecurity Ventures in its report said the cost of cybercrime will reach $8 trillion this year. The amount will cross $10 trillion by 2025.

• IBM and Ponemon Institute in their combined report “Cost of a Data Breach 2022” revealed that security teams take 277 days on average to figure out data breaches in the companies.

• Another finding of Cybersecurity Ventures revealed that around $10 billion will be spent globally on cybersecurity training.

These latest findings are alarming for businesses across the globe forcing them to take either quick action or fall into the hands of cybercriminals. But with the rise in the use of artificial intelligence in cybersecurity, they can detect threats beforehand and take necessary precautions. Ultimately, saving their hard-earned revenue from hackers and avoiding wasting time on recovery from the data breach.

Use of AI in Cybersecurity is Crucial for Modern Enterprise

Capgemini Research Institute, the top global think tank behind Capgemini, surveyed 800+ executives across 10 countries to figure out, what they think about AI for cyber security. Here are the key takeaways from the report that focused on enhancing business security against cyberattacks:

1. Approximately two-thirds of the executives handling IT information security, cybersecurity, and IT operations believe that AI will help identify critical threats

2. 69% of businesses believe responding to cyberattacks requires the intervention of AI

3. 3 out of 4 executives said that AI helped them quickly respond to data breaches

4. Majority of executives said that the use of AI in cyber security lowered the cost of threat detection by 12%

5. 60% of firms observed better accuracy and efficiency of cyber analysts because of using artificial intelligence in cyber security

How is AI Helping Businesses in Detecting Cyber Threats?

Identify Anonymous Pattern in The Network

A company’s network is the hotspot for cybercriminals for stealing sensitive data such as customer information, financial data, trade secrets, and more. Ransomware and malware attacks are the malicious activities hackers perform to cause significant damage like revenue loss and losing customer loyalty and investors’ confidence.

AI-powered intrusion detection systems play a crucial role in securing the company’s network by analyzing network traffic to identify unusual patterns or suspicious behaviour such as unusual login patterns, sudden spikes in data transfer, unauthorized application access, etc.

These patterns indicate a potential cyber-attack on the network. Besides this, AI can also recognize and analyze malware such as viruses and trojans before they could damage the network.

Automate Threat Monitoring

Actively and continuously monitoring computer systems, networks, and digital assets for potential security threats or breaches is time-consuming and labour-intensive. It involves collecting and analyzing security-related data from various sources, such as system logs, network traffic, and user activity, to identify potential indicators of data compromise and other security incidents. This is hectic.

The use of artificial intelligence in cybersecurity allows automation of threat monitoring. It also helps analyze large amounts of data in real-time from multiple sources/endpoints. Through the incorporation of this technology, they can detect and respond to security threats promptly and prevent potential damage to their IT infrastructure, data, and reputation.

Prediction of Data Breach Risk

AI-based systems help businesses prevent their IT assets inventory from potential data breaches. These systems scan all the devices and applications used across the company for known vulnerabilities and assess the risk of exploitation by attackers. It also analyzes data related to IT assets, such as the type of asset, location, and user access, to create a risk profile indicating the likelihood and potential impact of a breach.

Threat intelligence is another benefit of artificial intelligence in cybersecurity that can adjust risk profiles accordingly as per the emerging cyber threats. Thus, keeping businesses informed about the potential loss in the future which could happen because of their negligence.

Risk Sensing

As cybercriminals are getting advanced by using technology to their advantage, the rise in cyber threats has increased making it difficult for rule-based algorithms to detect every threat accurately. These algorithms detect anomalies using a limited set of instructions, thus restricting them to identify any latest threats.

Here, predictive AI can help businesses detect new categories of threats and anomalies thus strengthening their risk assessment process.

Identifying the Bad Bots

As bots get smarter, hackers are using them for malicious purposes such as stealing important

credentials of users, creating fake accounts, and data fraud. These bots are then distributed in a network known as a botnet.

For humans to tackle threats generated by malware bots are nearly impossible due to the heavy bot traffic. Artificial intelligence and machine learning help in identifying those bad bots by understanding the behavioral patterns of users and their journey. Supervised and unsupervised techniques are used to train AI models for security design. If any abnormal pattern is detected on the web traffic which does not match the learned pattern, it is because of malware bots.

Fraud Detection

One of the uses of AI and ML algorithms in the field of cybersecurity is fraud detection. Artificial intelligence can identify patterns that may indicate fraudulent activity by analyzing data from a variety of sources. As a result, businesses can easily identify and prevent fraudulent activity before it causes significant damage to them.

Improve Incident Response

Another area where AI is helping is incident response. AI algorithms help automate incident response processes, making it possible to respond to threats faster and with greater accuracy. It also helps in determining the best course of action for different types of threats and provides recommendations to security teams. This saves valuable time and resources and reduces the risk of further damage from cyber-attacks.

Conclusion

As the IT landscape keeps evolving, it has become increasingly difficult for cyber analysts to monitor a huge amount of data securely and effectively across firewalls and detect new attack vectors.

Entry of AI in Cybersecurity has helped cyber analysts and businesses to overcome these challenges and incorporate the technology in their security measures and strategies. As a result, they can protect their valuable data and detect cyber threats before things go wrong.  

Need Help? Consult Softude

In case you need expert’s assistance, Softude is a perfect partner. We provide comprehensive cyber security services such as network security monitoring, risk assessment, privacy, and data protection, governance to help businesses secure their critical digital assets and resources.

Consult our experts now!

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