AI: Where Do We Go from Here?

Beginning in 1984 with Neuromancer, William Gibson, the author who coined the term “cyberspace,” used a plotline that pitted good and evil AI against each other. And while at the time, such a concept seemed such a far-off idea, some forty years later we are seeing “good” and “evil” AI being used by opposing sides in cybersecurity.

The AI tide is turning much more quickly than anticipated. However, AI’s importance should not be under or overstated. Today, AI is a sophisticated and critical part of the multilayered cybersecurity solutions that organizations need to protect their communications, people, and data. Its deployment must be considered carefully and should be focused in areas that exploit its strengths while deemphasizing its limitations.

The use of AI in cybersecurity will expand, and at present, there seems to be as many questions as answers. While not yet fully understood or realized, AI’s potential is as vast as the imaginations and skill sets of those who are working to harness it. 

The Future of AI and Cybersecurity

What we do seem to know at this point is that it is safe to say that the capabilities of AI will only continue to increase exponentially as time goes on – and this will happen on both sides of the cybersecurity struggle. Threat actors will get better at using the technology and security professionals will meet those increased abilities at every turn with increased abilities of their own – both as humans using AI as well as through AI-based cybersecurity tools.

On the cybersecurity side, advancement in AI will lead to better detection of anomalies in both human behavior and electronic methods of communication such as email, collaboration tools, and websites. Pattern recognition will reduce false positives, human capabilities will be further enhanced by AI, incident response and recovery will be sped up, and security awareness training, particularly phishing training, will become more advanced.

On the cybercriminal side, those same advancements in AI will lead to more sophisticated attacks, even faster development of new attack methods, AI-automated malware campaigns, even more advanced phishing attacks, and more realistic deepfakes that will be difficult to distinguish. 

How Organizations Can Remain Secure

In order to protect themselves from these impending advancements in AI – and the threats that already exist today – organizations must rely on vendors that actually use real and effective AI-based solutions as part of an overall cybersecurity strategy that combines human elements and strong and effective training initiatives. 

Organizations need to partner with vendors that have a history of being at the forefront of technology and strategies for defending against a relentless adversaries like cybercriminals. Security professionals need a vendor that will work with them to combine dozens of different approaches, augmented by AI, to yield industry-leading security efficacy.

The right vendor knows exactly how to use AI-based tools in combination with other security tools and measures to effectively counter and stay ahead of threat actors who would misuse AI technology.

Security professionals must know the features they need from AI-based tools and must seek out the vendors that provide those features using true – not just hyped – AI capabilities.

The Bottom Line

AI will only increase in practical and effective use in cybersecurity tools, and so will the hype surrounding it. Security professionals need to know how to drown out the noise and find the real AI solutions that work best for their organization. Learn more about The Promise and Truth of the AI Security Revolution.