AI to Ensure Fast Response to Data Hacks, Security Breaches

As cybercrime becomes more ubiquitous and complicated, cybersecurity experts throughout Europe have turned to AI to give them a leg up, according to a story in TechDataNewsFlash.co.uk.

Overwhelmed by data and trying to sort through it, a survey of 850 security pros from 10 countries said they’re using or are planning to use AI to more effectively track data and identify problems. Machine learning systems enable them to scan petabytes of data far more efficiently than a human could do manually, allowing security officials to quickly target threats.

“Capgemini UK’s Chief Security Strategist Richard Starnes said: ‘The networks are getting so complicated, and there is so much noise coming in, that we have to have some sort of mechanism for coming right down and getting human eyes on what actually matters, rather than a bank of security analysts shifting minutia.’ “

Starnes said security experts are in an “arms race” with cybercriminals to beat them at their own game. Automated attacks that propagate and spread at high speed are the core threat. “Spear phishing,” for example, targets victims with phishing tweets and emails six times faster than a human could. AI can defend against automated attacks.

The study found that two-thirds of organizations surveyed plan to use cyber security involving AI by 2020.

According to the Secret Service Director James Murray, quoted in nextgov.com, national security in the United States is at stake if more isn’t done to fight cyber crime.

“I’m not looking to downplay the threats posed by nation-states,” Murray said at the Aspen Cyber Summit in New York City. “On the contrary, I’m saying that … we see the arrest and conviction of transnational organized criminals as an indispensable component of addressing the wider challenge. It is an essential element of the whole-of-government approach to reducing the full range of cybersecurity threats, including those threats posed by nation-states.”

One example of the threat is how a North Korean hacker ring stole more than $1 billion to support the country’s nuclear weapons program.

The worldwide costs of ransomware, data breaches and other cyberattacks surpass $600 billion per year.