The Exciting Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Cybersecurity

So, the other day, my gym buddy and I were having a discussion on gaining muscle mass and he mentioned using ChatGPT for dietary and nutrition counsel. This struck me as a classic example of the broad use and quick adaptation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in our everyday lives.  It took X (formerly Twitter) 2 years and Instagram 2.5 months to reach one million users. ChatGPT reached the same number of users in just five days. It has over a 100 million users today.

Artificial Intelligence is the technology which makes it possible for computers to imitate intelligent human behaviour. Just like mobile devices, cloud computing and smart devices, it represents yet another significant shift in computing and digitalization. So, what is the role of Artificial Intelligent in cybersecurity. Does it have anything to offer? Is it going to take away our jobs or is it just another threat vector. Well, let’s find out.

The good news

Artificial Intelligence has lots of benefits in the cybersecurity industry. In the area of career development, certification bodies like ISC2 have integrated it into their learning and development platforms to create adaptive learning modules. This creates a customized learner experience focused on individual learner needs and identifies weak areas which needs attention.

When integrated with existing technologies, AI rapidly improves the detection of threats, vulnerabilities and indicators of compromise. It can help analysts with remediation guidance, provide insights into attack paths and help with determining root cause analysis. Artificial Intelligence can also take care of repetitive tasks such as security event monitoring and incident response. It automates processes such as event validation, prioritization and access verification.

In addition, AI can be used in detecting and blocking malicious software, prioritizing patches, automating user on and off boarding. It can reduce identity and access management risks by using behavioural and physical analysis. Just like cloud security, AI introduces a new specialty in the cybersecurity which leads to more jobs.

The not so good news

AI presents a new set of risks to the cyber industry. Cyber criminals can use it to avoid detection techniques of intrusion detection systems and other defensive tools. It can be used to create excellent phishing and scam mails which does not have any of the traditional signs. This makes it very difficult for trained users to identify. It can also be used to create deepfakes, which are near perfect copies of audio, video and photos of individuals. There are countless examples of deep fakes of high profile people engaged in activities such as zoom meetings or leaving voice mails to colleagues authorizing them to transfer large sums of money.

The use of Artificial Intelligence can lead to a less skilled cyber workforce as it takes over routine tasks. For example, cybersecurity professionals may not have to learn how to write scripts anymore as this can be easily done with AI. It also presents a significant increase in the potential for privacy violations due to the exposure of personally identifiable information (PII) used to feed machine learning models.

Where do we go from here?

Artificial intelligence appears to be a two-edged sword.  Like the internet, it brings so many benefits to society and the technology industry. Though it presents exceptional challenges, this grants the security industry an opportunity to rethink, re-evaluate and create improved defensive mechanisms. Rather than taking away cybersecurity jobs, it’s going to enhance and create some specialty ones. Microsoft Copilot is a clear example of how AI is being used to enhance existing security solutions.

Let me know your thoughts on this interesting subject. As always, be cyber safe, stay healthy and do not overly rely on artificial intelligence.