AI-powered cybersecurity soon won’t be just a trend, but a necessity
Supply chains are now more global than ever before, and interconnections are no longer exceptional but a given. Disruptions in any part of the supply chain can have a massive knock-on effect, whether there is a local shortage of parts, a strike or a cyberattack. At this point, no business or organisation is immune – even the smallest companies trust some of their processes (such as HR and payroll) to third parties, and larger organisations are often fully enmeshed between suppliers and other third parties.
So, what does this mean for diligent cybersecurity teams, working to protect their organisations? In short, the globalisation of business has massively increased the amount of cyber risk and threats present at any given moment. Every connection with a supplier, vendor or other third-party is a potential entry point for a cyber attacker, so it’s no surprise that cyber threats such as malware and ransomware have only increased year by year. With the number of nefarious actors out there, constantly searching for the weakest link to prey upon, mitigating cyber risks and promoting cyber resilience seems like a near-impossible task.
However, artificial intelligence may have the power to change that. Imagine this: instead of having a security team that manually searches for threat intelligence every day, a tool constantly trawls through data feeds and other sources, highlighting any credible threats. But, once armed with that information, it doesn’t simply present it to you. Instead, it automatically makes decisions to mitigate those risks based on the threat and on your entire cyber and compliance status, including your organisation and your organisation’s entire digital footprint.
Of course, an artificial intelligence may not be able to make the best decision in the face of every single cyber threat – but it can for most of them, especially if they are routine. And for cyber threats that are uncommon or otherwise extraordinary, an AI-powered tool will be able to highlight these risks in a timely and efficient matter to the security team, who can then implement the measures necessary to neutralise the situation at hand.
Ultimately, cyber threats are constantly growing exponentially – there’s simply no way to keep up with them using the same tools and methods that have been used over the past twenty years. Artificial intelligence technology is here, and it can be put to use to protect organisations, supply chains and even consumers. It doesn’t take much to see that AI-powered digital risk management tools will soon become the norm, helping organisations maintain and improve their cybersecurity statuses.
Author:
Shadi Razak, CyNation Ltd.
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Katherine Holden
Katherine joined techUK in May 2018 and currently leads the Data Analytics, AI and Digital ID programme.