How artificial intelligence and machine learning will impact cybersecurity

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are booming technologies that have rapidly advanced over the past few years. While AI helps automates tasks that normally require human intervention, such as speech recognition, visual perception and more, ML is an algorithm that essentially teaches a machine how to learn.

AI and ML are slowly pervading every aspect of current and emerging technology - in smart cars, internet search results, cloud computing and more. The cybersecurity industry is no different. AI and ML are being increasingly integrated into new cybersecurity solutions.

AI and ML in cybersecurity

Security firms across the world have integrated AI - the speed and accuracy brought to the table by AI has enabled them to detect new malware, vulnerabilities, zero-day exploits and threat actors.

Cybersecurity analysis often requires repetitive, time-consuming routine tasks. When analyzing a constant stream of incoming data, there is a always a risk of errors. This is when AI can come in handy, as automation can ensure that massive amounts of data is processed as rapidly as possible, with minimal to no errors.

“The AI mimics what an analyst would do, how they look at data, how and why they make decisions . . . It’s doing a huge amount of legwork upfront, which means we can focus our analysts’ time. That saves human labor, which is far more expensive than computing time,” said Daniel Driver, head of perception cybersecurity at Chemring Technology, part of the UK defense group, FT reported.

In other words, AI and ML can help reduce analyst fatigue and improve efficiency. AI and ML could in the future also be used by security experts to help with attribution. At present, attribution is challenging for most security firms. However, by incorporating AI and ML, security experts could figure out the point of origin of an attack with more confidence and accuracy.

Although AI and ML have already gained a strong foothold in cybersecurity, there is every expectation that it will be further interspersed into the sector.