Artificial Intelligence (AI) will create new security responsibilities for protecting digital business

With Artificial Intelligence (AI) now used in many of the applications that drive the digital workforce, many enterprise managers are beginning to ask themselves the implications this will have on the security of the digital business. This is more than speculation; there is a great deal of research indicating just how deep AI has spread into the technology that is in place to protect customers, and by extension, the business itself. Therefore, if you’re asking yourself whether AI is the best or worst thing that impacted cybersecurity? Well it is both.

AI’s enormous potential to automate security on a broader scale offers a welcome advantage in the short term. Yet unleashing a technology poised to take humans out of the equation naturally gives the industry some goosebumps. No doubt, there is uncertainty and an undercurrent of fear about the consequences if things don’t turn out the way we expect or attackers learn to make better use of the technology. Here is how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing security responsibilities in digital business:

Role of AI in cyber threat detection

Digital businesses need to be able to detect a cyber-attack long before it happens to enable them to thwart whatever the attackers are attempting to achieve. Artificial Intelligence, through its subset of machine learning, has proven to be extremely useful when it comes to detecting cyber threats based on analyzing data and identifying a threat before it penetrates your information systems. Machine learning (ML) basically enables computers to utilize and adapt algorithms based on the data received, learning from it, and understanding the consequent improvements required. In securing digital businesses, this will mean ML is enabling the computer to predict threats and determine any anomalies with a lot of accuracies than any human can.

Role of AI in Password Protection and Authentication

You will agree with me that passwords have always been a very delicate control when it comes to security. And yet passwords are the only barriers between cybercriminals and our accounts. AI has been used to remove imperfections of biometric authentication to make it a reliable system than using passwords. For instance, Apple’s face recognition used on its iPhone X devices uses AI technology by processing the user’s facial features through built-in infra-red sensors and neural engines. The AI technology used creates a sophisticated model of the user’s face by recognizing key correlations and patterns. The beauty of this technology is that it can work in different lighting conditions and take care of changes like getting a new hairstyle, growing facial hair, wearing a hat, among other things.

Role of AI in vulnerability management

Digital businesses have already reported over 2,000 unique vulnerabilities this year alone. No doubt, controlling all of these with human resources or traditional technology is tough. Using Artificial Intelligence, however, can accomplish this with a lot of ease. AI-based systems do not wait for attackers to exploit the vulnerability, but instead, proactively look for potential weaknesses in digital business information systems. To accomplish this, AI-based systems effectively combine multiple factors, such as hacker’s discussions on the dark web, patterns used, and the reputation of the hacker. The systems can then analyze these factors and use analysis to determine when and how the threat might take place.

Definitely, as the technology evolves, attackers are also upping their attack methods, techniques, and tools to exploit individuals and businesses. There is no doubt that AI has enormous potential, but it is somewhat of a double-edged sword. AI has proven to be useful in preventing attacks long before it happens. And as AI advances, we will be witnesses to how far we can take this technology in regards to cybersecurity in digital businesses and the society in general.