Artificial Intelligence, is probably a word that you might have come across hundreds of times as of now. It’s almost everywhere, and where it’s not, you may see it there sooner or later. The point is that Artificial Intelligence has enabled many people to do something that they were not able to do. For example, ChatGPT has enabled non–code people to create applications, websites, or whatever.
It’s great to see that it’s happening, but with this, there’s a darker side as well, in the case of Cyber crimes. Some cybercriminals may utilize AI to design and build more sophisticated, complicated cyberattacks on targeted organizations and individuals, which is a serious matter of concern. We are not saying that it’s completely on AI, as there are a lot of other contributors, like the potential increase in attack surface, IoT devices (which means more interconnected devices), and more.
AI Cyber Security
On the other hand, Artificial Intelligence has also become a hope for the people in cybersecurity and can help in reshaping the defense against rising or potential cyber-attacks. So, we can say that even if AI may fuel cyber threats, it can also empower the defenders. When Cyber Security is driven by Artificial Intelligence, there can be several benefits, allowing it to defend against advanced threats.
In this article, we are going to learn about what’s the impact of Artificial Intelligence on Cyber Security. So, let’s keep going then.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
I think this would be too basic for many people, but for someone who’s not familiar with the term Artificial Intelligence, let’s discuss it quickly. If you think you know about it already, you may happily skip over this part, but I would recommend reading this, as a quick read.
So, you can consider that Artificial Intelligence is enabling machines to perform the tasks, that require Human Intelligence, like playing chess, driving a car, and much more. So, AI can help us with many different tasks, and with more and more research and advancement in Artificial Intelligence, we are witnessing the continuously expanding AI potential.
While there are many potential upsides of Artificial Intelligence, there are some downsides too. So that was a quick introduction to Artificial Intelligence, and I won’t dive into greater details of AI for this article.
What are the benefits of using AI in Cyber Security?
As we already know now, AI is reshaping almost every industry, and it can make a great contribution to cybersecurity as well. While traditional Cyber Security applies perimeter defense to their network, they might still struggle at some point, but with Artificial Intelligence, the security field gets a new superpower, to set up safeguards over the infrastructure.
In the Core Cyber security industry, more and more companies are relying on Artificial Intelligence for better solutions to cyber threats, leveraging AI into things like Antivirus Protection, Fraud Detection, intrusion detection, risk management, and more. Artificial Intelligence can be well suited to many different tasks, like –
- Mitigating any human error in the whole process for enterprise security solutions.
- Prioritizing the responses based on real-world scenarios.
- Able to Identify and flag any kind of potential emails and messages that might be used in attacks like phishing.
- Simulation of attacks which should help the security team easily identify potential threats before the cyber criminals spot them.
- Being not just limited to the current database of threats, it would have the knowledge of trends around the world, which increases the range of mitigation for newer occurring attacks.
- AI can handle large amounts of data, resulting in quicker identification of vulnerabilities and attacks.
- With AI, along with no human intervention, there are likely fewer chances of internal threats occurring.
- AI can result in improved detection and response time.
So, as you can see, there’s not just one, but several benefits of using Artificial Intelligence in the field of Cyber Security. One more thing, using AI in cyber security can help in cost cutting, by automating and making the process mostly efficient.
So, as you can see, there’s not just one, but several benefits of using Artificial Intelligence in the field of Cyber Security. One more thing, using AI in cyber security can help in cost cutting, by automating and making the process mostly efficient.
Traditional Cyber Security vs AI powered Cyber Security
Well, cybersecurity is not a new concept at all, but with Artificial Intelligence, the field can get a big boost. So, let’s have a look at some of the differences between the traditional cyber security solutions or approaches, versus the AI-powered Cyber security approaches. Have a look at this table to find out some of the differences –
| Traditional Cybersecurity | AI-Powered Cybersecurity |
|---|---|
| Mostly relies on predefined signatures and rules. | This uses machine learning to identify anomalies and patterns in vast datasets, allowing proactive threat detection. |
| response mostly initiated after some incident | Real-time or near-real-time response because of automated systems capable of swift action upon threat detection. |
| Mostly static and has limited adaptability to new threats. | Can continuously learn and evolve, adapting to new threat behaviors and trends. |
| Relatively lower accuracy in detecting emerging or unknown threats. | Higher accuracy in identifying sophisticated, evolving threats by learning from historical and real-time data, and trends. |
| Mostly relies on manual intervention and rule updates, thereby less scalable | This is comparatively more scalable since it is capable of handling large and diverse datasets without compromising efficiency. |
| Heavily relies on human analysis and decision-making. | Minimizes the need for frequent human intervention, automated processes augment human efforts. |
As you can see, we have mentioned some points of differences between traditional cyber security and AI-powered Cyber security. Traditional cyber security has come so far and has been mostly efficient in identifying frequently occurring threats, but with the rise of Artificial Intelligence, the level of attack sophistication and probabilities has improved, and this is why there’s a growing need for AI-powered Artificial Intelligence. It’s not a thing of the future, it’s now.
How may Hackers use AI (in a negative way, of course)?
Now it’s no secret that Artificial Intelligence is a double-edged sword, so there are some ways Artificial Intelligence may be used by hackers for any kind of ill benefit. Let’s try to discuss some of the potential points, explaining how may hackers use(or instead abuse) AI to their ill benefit.
- Getting more improved techniques for cyber threats
Any bad actor may want to be more powerful than the positive forces, and so, the bad actors might utilize the power of AI, to design and develop new and sophisticated cyber threats, which might be harder to detect and mitigate. - Getting improved messages
Mostly in Phishing or any kind of scam/hacking messages, you may be able to identify some spellings wrong, or some kind of structure, which gives an insight that this could be the start of something wrong. But AI can help write so human text, which may make things look more legitimate than ever before. - Password guessing through AI.
Well, guessing passwords can be considered a widely common thing happening. Different techniques can be employed to guess the correct password for some accounts, but with AI, the hackers may be allowed to improve the algorithms that are being used to decipher the passwords, which would make them more efficient at deciphering passwords, and eventually rise in more password attacks.
Well, the above shown were just some potential ways cybercriminals might exploit Artificial Intelligence, to their ill benefit. But we neither encourage nor tolerate any of the ill activities done by any individual or group.
Conclusion
Cyber Security has been increasingly important to us, both as an individual and as an organization. While the rise in research and development of Artificial Intelligence may result in rising cyber crimes, Artificial Intelligence is also being employed as a medicine to that.
So, using Artificial Intelligence, the field of cyber security can be powered a lot, with new capabilities, to identify and mitigate threats, simulate vulnerabilities before hackers spot them, handle large amounts of data, and more. This tells us that Artificial intelligence can be a game changer for Cyber Security.
FAQs related to AI Cyber Security
Ans: AI can be used in a lot of situations in cybersecurity, like better identification of threats, simulation of vulnerabilities, and more.
Ans: Artificial Intelligence is transforming almost every industry, and cyber security should be no exception to that. AI can prove to be a superpower for cybersecurity.
Ans: Well, while AI can potentially bring many advancements and automation to Cyber security, it may follow with a question as to whether it would replace Cyber security. But in view, AI would augment, and not replace Cyber security.
Ans: AI can be a fuel for hackers, to be able to do what was not possible before. Hackers may abuse AI in multiple, and unwanted, undesired ways, for any kind of ill benefits.
