What Is the Role of AI in Cybersecurity?

As cyberthreats become more sophisticated and pervasive, the ability of artificial intelligence (AI) to process data, identify patterns, and automate responses is proving indispensable. From enhancing threat detection and prevention to improving security operations, AI transforms how organizations protect their digital assets. Let’s explore some of the benefits and some of the drawbacks of this technology.

What Are Some Benefits of AI in Cybersecurity?

Many organizations have already harnessed the power of AI for their business needs. The benefits of AI in cybersecurity include:

• Improved threat detection. AI can identify patterns, anomalies, and emerging threats with remarkable accuracy. This allows for the early detection of sophisticated attacks often missed by traditional methods. AI can automate responses to threats, such as blocking malicious traffic, isolating compromised devices, and sending alerts, thereby saving time and minimizing data breaches.
• Automated processes. AI learns from historical data and adapts to new information, quickly identifying, containing, and remediating breaches. This automation reduces human intervention and is crucial for continuous monitoring, streamlined patch management, compliance monitoring, and efficient incident response.
• Machine learning. AI enables cybersecurity software to learn from past experiences, improving over time by identifying trends and connecting past incidents with threat intelligence. These algorithms can also analyze password patterns to detect weak or easily guessable passwords, alerting employees to enhance security.
• Reduced human error. Tasks that are time-consuming and prone to human error can be streamlined by AI, which minimizes typos and formatting mistakes in manually entered data. AI can also detect anomalies and clues in data that human analysts might overlook. Additionally, AI reduces human biases in cybersecurity analysis.
• High data analysis capacity. AI can handle and analyze mass amounts of data, identifying patterns and trends indicative of security threats. AI’s high data processing capacity allows for continuous automated analysis and 24/7 security monitoring.
• Improved user experience. Generative AI advances customer support with interactive chat options for efficient feedback collection. It also enhances the usability of various cybersecurity tools and features, increasing their acceptance and effectiveness.

Explore a career in AI with a BS in Cybersecurity from Excelsior University

What Are Some Challenges for AI in Cybersecurity?

While there are many benefits to using artificial intelligence, we shouldn’t be automating our systems and heading for monthslong vacations just yet. There are many limits to AI that we should be aware of. Some of these limitations include:

• Absence of human judgment. No matter how sophisticated or intelligent AI becomes, it will only comprise data and algorithms. It notoriously lacks human judgment and creativity, and without this piece of humanity, you run the risk of problems like systemic bias and the kind of cold unaccountability that could affect a business’s security and reputation.
• Ethics issues. AI’s ability to analyze vast amounts of data can lead to privacy invasions, as sensitive information might be accessed or misused. Bias in AI algorithms can result in unfair or discriminatory outcomes. Overreliance on AI can lead to complacency, and cyber criminals could exploit these technologies for malicious purposes. Automating cybersecurity tasks through AI may also result in job displacement for cybersecurity professionals.
• Inability to keep up with threats. Although AI’s defensive capabilities are highly advanced, cybercriminals develop new and dangerous methods of cyberattack every day. Cybercriminals have even started using AI for their own tactics, like new malware strains and phishing attacks, making it harder than ever to spot a cybercrime. Cybersecurity professionals need to stay up to date to make sure AI is ready to stop these cybercriminals before they strike.
• False positives. AI-based systems can become overwhelmed when false positives happen. This means an alert incorrectly indicates a problem or vulnerability in the organization’s system. When this happens, AI systems don’t have the proper context or history to analyze them correctly, so IT teams cannot distinguish real from fake threats.
• Cost. AI often requires special hardware, software, professional expertise, and training. This all makes AI solutions expensive, especially for smaller businesses.
• Unemployment. Some critics of AI-based solutions argue that technology could rapidly replace human workers, putting many IT professionals out of jobs. Chatbots and robots, for instance, are also used in human resources to respond to customer questions. Although not always the case, this can mean fewer jobs for many people.

How Is Artificial Intelligence Used in Cyberattacks?

Although many use AI for legitimate business purposes, others use it for cybercrime. Cybercriminals are using artificial intelligence to enhance their cyberattacks on corporations and individuals. They’re able to do this in a variety of ways because AI uses machine learning. Machine learning allows systems to learn from previous data and improve performance. Simply put, AI “learns” using large amounts of data to recognize patterns. Hackers and cybercriminals use AI in automated attacks, phishing and social engineering attacks, deepfake technology, malware, data mining, password cracking, and more. It amounts to a technological arms race between white hats and black hats, putting the onus on cybersecurity professionals to constantly keep up on the latest developments and stay ever vigilant in their application.

CISA’s Roadmap

To combat cybercriminals’ dangerous use of AI and to explore and enhance its benefits, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) developed a road map. CISA’s plan covers five lines of effort:

1. Responsibly use AI to support CISA’s mission.
2. Assure AI systems.
3. Protect critical infrastructure from malicious use of AI.
4. Collaborate with the interagency, international partners, and the public.
5. Expand AI expertise in the U.S. workforce.

How Can You Prevent Cybercrime?

If you want to do your part to help prevent the criminal use of technology, here are a few tips:

• Use strong passwords.
• Use multifactor authentication.
• Keep your software up to date.
• Enable privacy settings.
• Use antivirus software.
• Use a firewall.
• Back up your important data.

Technology is only going to continue to advance. Artificial intelligence is one of the areas that will continue to see rapid developments. To stay ahead of criminals wishing to use this technology for malicious reasons and to explore all the benefits AI can provide, we must constantly keep up to date with our rapidly changing technological world. A degree in cybersecurity can provide you with the foundation to enter this dynamic field and propel you to make advancements that can benefit individuals and society at large.