How AI Enhances Cybersecurity Protection

Cybersecurity is vital to our online lives. From grade school kids to professionals to retired grandparents, most of us spend a significant amount of time on the Internet. Unfortunately, cybercriminals lurk in the most innocent corners of our online activity, waiting to strike.

Cybersecurity measures are utilized on our smart devices, many organizations have a focused cybersecurity team, and for the most part, we’re protected from threats that we aren’t even aware of. However, cyberattacks remain a risk that we must proactively combat.

The rapid evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its integration into every private and public sector can present new sophisticated scams to avoid, but conversely, AI also enhances cybersecurity protection. When used for good, AI has numerous cybersecurity benefits and can increase safety and peace of mind. 

What is cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity is the proactive and strategic protection of apps, data, platforms, networks, and operating systems from targeted unauthorized access, use, damage, and theft. Cybersecurity professionals use different strategies, practices, and technologies to assess, mitigate, and prevent cyberattacks.

What is AI?

AI tools are implemented to take care of a wide variety of tasks, and can range in their learning abilities and autonomous behavior. However, AI is a technology that allows computers and machines to perform tasks that previously required human intelligence. AI training simulates human comprehension, communication, creativity, decision-making, language, learning, and problem-solving. 

AI models operate with human input, but minimal human oversight, and perform complex tasks that they master through experience, improvement, and exposure to new data for a wide range of applications. Chatbots, self-driving cars, and predictive text are all examples of current AI.

How AI enhances cybersecurity

AI enhances cybersecurity through automated responses, strong vulnerability management, and increased threat detection. Pre-AI cybersecurity programs are static models that need to be updated constantly and cannot pivot to make decisions they aren’t programmed to make. 

AI learns over time, and problem-solves based on experience, and frees up cybersecurity professionals to concentrate on larger, more complex tasks. Here’s a closer look at how AI is enhancing cybersecurity measures in new ways:

• Automated tasks: AI enhances cybersecurity measures by automating tasks such as incident responses, malware analysis, and vulnerability scanning which can allow your cybersecurity team to focus on strategic initiatives and planning. AI also automatically isolates infected systems to contain the spread of malware and other cyberattacks and strengthens system vulnerabilities. 
• Endpoint security: AI can enhance individual endpoints from malware, phishing attacks, and other threats. For example, your smart devices might be protected from threats by AI-powered tools.
• Improved vulnerability management: AI analyzes large data sets, identifies patterns, and predicts future threats and vulnerabilities. Many AI tools can respond to threats in real-time. After a cyberattack or threat, AI can immediately offer insights and analysis, and mitigate threats. 
• Increased threat detection: AI identifies and classifies various types of malware, which can help your organization to prevent malware attacks, block phishing emails and websites, and more. AI algorithms can identify small, subtle pattern anomalies in system logs and user behavior that might be missed by cybersecurity professionals. An AI-powered tool then learns from past incidents and threats, and improves the ability to prevent future cyberattacks.
• Network traffic real-time analysis: AI can offer analysis and insights into suspicious network traffic patterns to identify and prevent suspicious access, activity, and data scraping in real-time.

Cyber threats that AI can detect

AI benefits cybersecurity by detecting and preventing attacks. 70% of cybersecurity professionals find AI effective at identifying and flagging previously undetectable threats. Close to 75% of cybersecurity teams are shifting to an AI-driven approach to threat prevention.

AI systems are great at quickly identifying and mitigating the following cyberattacks:

• AI/ML Attacks: Bad actors are increasingly using AI models to manipulate and bypass security measures through data poisoning and model extraction via AI/ML attacks. AI cybersecurity can detect these threats before they wreak havoc on your network.
• DDoS Attacks: DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attacks overwhelm and flood networks or websites with bogus traffic from a multitude of sources. AI analyzes network traffic to detect and prevent DDoS attacks.
• Malware: Malware is malicious software sent to infiltrate and harm operating systems and networks and corrupt data. Ransomware, spyware, a Trojan Horse, and viruses are all forms of malware. AI can analyze both your operating system’s behavior and network traffic to block malware threats.
• Misused Employee Access: If employee access to confidential data, networks, or systems is compromised or misused, AI can alert your cybersecurity team.
• Network Anomalies: AI can flag any abnormal network behavior that might indicate cyberattacks and ensure malevolent traffic is blocked. This saves valuable time and other resources so that your human cybersecurity team can focus on larger tasks.
• Phishing and Social Engineering: AI can analyze and monitor your email, instant messaging channels, social media, and websites to identify and thwart phishing scams and social engineering tactics.
• Supply Chain Attacks: A supply chain attack targets vulnerabilities within your supply chain (i.e., consumers, suppliers, and vendors). It aims to corrupt and steal sensitive data, and gain access to your network. AI can identify vulnerabilities and potential threats in your supply chain before attacks occur.

Challenges of AI in cybersecurity

Although AI enhances cybersecurity, it can also be used to launch sophisticated attacks and exploit weak security measures. AI-powered cyberattacks include attacks that subtly change input data to mask threats, data poisoning (corrupting the training data you use to teach your AI models), and AI model theft.

The risks of AI in cybersecurity also include:

• AI Phishing Attacks
• Automated Malware
• Data Breaches
• Deep Fake Attacks
• Lack of Transparency (some AI models are not transparent in decision-making which can make errors harder to correct)
• Overdependence on AI
• Training Data Bias and Discrimination

Best AI cybersecurity tools

The best AI cybersecurity tools address multiple methods of protection and threat detection. If you use any of the following tools, you can enjoy the peace of mind that enhanced cybersecurity can bring.

Arctic Wolf

Arctic Wolf (and the brand’s acquired firm, Cylance) is a cybersecurity company specializing in endpoint solutions that use both AI and machine learning to analyze file behavior, identify malicious code, and provide incident response in real-time. The company’s Aurora Endpoint Security greatly reduces your risk of a cyberattack.

CrowdStrike

CrowdStrike is an extremely popular option for AI-enhanced cybersecurity. The company specializes in cloud-based endpoint protection and offers multiple products to address cross-domain attacks, insider threats, malware, and more.

Darktrace

The Enterprise Immune System (EIS) from Darktrace utilizes AI-powered network analysis, self-learning threat detection, investigation, and prediction. Darktrace specializes in detecting both known and novel threats in real-time.

SentinelOne

SentinelOne offers autonomous endpoint protection by providing data-driven, real-time threat analysis, detection, and protection. The tools from SentinelOne address threats across networks, cloud platforms, containers, and user endpoints to keep organizations safe from cyberattacks.

Vectra AI

Vectra AI boasts AI-driven cybersecurity that can catch threats 99% more than human security measures. It tracks and identifies potential attackers across cloud platforms, networks, and various identities used. The AI-driven platform detects even subtle threats in real-time. This helps you to stop cybercriminals in their tracks.

To protect yourself against cybersecurity threats, check out the free cybersecurity tools from What Is My IP Address and for more on AI’s role in cybersecurity, visit our blog  or listen to our Easy Prey podcast available on your favorite podcast platforms.