Knowledge Base | Wizata

How to Improve Cybersecurity in Your AI Infrastructure

Written by Wizata Team | 18 October 2021

It's no secret that businesses far and wide are investing billions of dollars into new, more secure online websites and platforms. Even though cybersecurity technologies keep improving, cybercriminals always find new ways of breaching systems and stealing information. 

As more and more organizations introduce AI into their operations, they are putting their businesses at risk. A single cyberattack aimed at AI systems can be extremely damaging. However, some methods can help you keep your AI infrastructure safe and sound. This article will tell you how to boost AI cybersecurity measures to prevent future attacks. 

Increasing Cybersecurity Costs Due To Digitalization

New technologies such as IoT, smart vehicles, and all kinds of software solutions are leading the process of worldwide digitalization. However, programmers have to create millions and billions of lines of code for everything to work perfectly. They are the ones responsible for improving customer experience, finding new ways to improve businesses, and most importantly, they are leading the digital transformation.

So many new codes and programs are making life better for everyone, but they create opportunities for cybercriminals too. These people can't wait to find new lines of codes and practices they experiment with until they find a way into the system. More digital technologies are creating more cybercriminals. Things got so bad that current estimations say that cybercrime will reach a whopping 6 trillion dollars in damages in 2021. 

Digitalization can't be stopped, and pretty soon, all businesses will switch to online digital platforms. Naturally, that also leads to increased risks of experiencing cybercrime, and overall costs for running cybersecurity have gone up drastically. With so many companies using AI to improve their operations, AI cybersecurity is now a top priority. 

Most AI solutions are too expensive to develop, and without the right security features in place, companies can lose more money than they can handle. AI is used to automate repetitive tasks, which makes it extremely attractive to cybercriminals. 

Cyberattacks Are Becoming Increasingly Expensive

Cyberattacks are becoming more and more expensive. Companies that experience these attacks have to pay for much more than only damage repair. They have to cover compliance costs, pay fines in case an attack happens, etc. That's why cybersecurity insurance is one of the fastest-growing types of insurance in the past few years.

As the world is making the last push towards total digitalization, cybercriminals are waiting behind every corner. The massive influx of online data in the past few years has made cybercrime far more costly. Businesses of all sizes are risking massive fines and regulatory expenses in case these attacks happen. Cybersecurity was always an issue, but now it's reached a whole new level that puts all online businesses at risk constantly. 

The Role of AI and ML in Cybersecurity

As ML models and AI solutions make their way into most industries and applications, it's only logical that they get a role in improving cybersecurity. AI cybersecurity models are already used to improve online security and find potential weak spots in every defense system. The capabilities of AI in cybersecurity are still improving, but they are showing some incredible results that will undoubtedly change the game forever.

AI is currently used to improve existing practices and address common cybersecurity threats. Here's a quick overview of the benefits AI provides as a cybersecurity measure.

1. Improved Efficiency for Repetitive Tasks

Cybersecurity always depended on human efficiency. However, humans make mistakes and simply can't get the same results every single time. Everyone knows that most cyberattacks are caused by human error. One tiny mistake can leave an entire system exposed to an attack, which can have huge implications. 

When you consider that cybersecurity is an ever-changing practice, staying on top of the latest trends is not an easy task. You also have to consider that cybersecurity takes a lot of time and effort to set up. Even when everything is set up perfectly, IT experts have to monitor all elements constantly to ensure that they work correctly. 

Moreover, whenever something happens, IT experts have to find the best solution quickly. As you can see, there are plenty of chances for making errors, a ton of unexpected challenges, and other issues an AI solution can deal with much more efficiently.

2. Reduced Configuration Errors

As mentioned above, human error is the main cause of cybersecurity breaches. Depending on the complexity of the system, setting up the right cybersecurity defense can be very difficult. It doesn't matter how many people you've got working on it, managing complex security features is a real headache. 

The good news is those new technologies offer advanced solutions designed to help reduce human errors, find problems, and provide solutions. With technology such as cloud computing, companies can update their existing frameworks and add multiple protective layers for better security. IT experts have to reconfigure everything to ensure compatibility, which can be very complicated. That's when the risk of cyberattacks reaches its peak.

Constant upgrading and reconfiguring puts a lot of stress on your IT team. If they fail to update one feature on time or simply forget about one little detail, your entire system might be at risk. With AI and ML, you can fully automate maintenance and other repetitive tasks to reduce employee fatigue and minimize the chances of making mistakes. 

Moreover, AI can discover previously unknown issues and adjust the settings automatically. AI cybersecurity will definitely define the future of the industry.

3. Faster Threat Response Times

Acting quickly once a threat is identified is critical, and that's where AI can help tremendously. It's much more efficient at identifying threats and proposing the right solution than any human. It's able to filter through the entire network and prevent attacks before they wreak havoc on your system.

With that said, cybercriminals also use all kinds of AI solutions to improve efficiency. They use AI to accelerate attacks. For example, the right AI can find loopholes and deploy malware in less than an hour. Human responses can't cope with advanced cyberattacks. Even when an attack is identified, finding the right solution often takes too long.

However, AI cyberattack solutions use ML to quickly group threats and propose what steps to make. With the use of simplified reports, your IT sector can make fast decisions and ensure full protection at all times. The emphasis here is to find the best action that limits further damage.

4. Threat Prediction

Cybercriminals keep developing new ways of breaching systems and stealing information. As an organization, you have to stay informed about the latest trends to minimize the chances of an attack. Unknown attack types and tools often find a way into a system before you can protect it. 

Cyberattacks keep evolving, but new methods are usually based on existing technologies. They are often built on existing frameworks and source codes used in previous attacks, and that's where ML can make a huge difference. It can find correlations between the newest threats and the ones that were already used in the past. Of course, humans can do the same, but it would take them far longer to find a working solution. 

As a result, your IT team can quickly identify trends and even predict new threats before they appear. Increased threat awareness leads to predictive solutions, which can help you save a lot of effort.

5. New Level of Adaptability

With so many new technologies and methods that keep getting introduced all the time, humans are finding it increasingly harder to keep track of everything. Your cybersecurity team has to keep learning new skills and finding specific methods to address threats. Learning the right skills to cope with the threat at hand often takes too much time. 

Even simple threats require the right approach, adopting new security policies, and training staff. AI cybersecurity solutions are much more efficient at learning new skills if you feed them with the right data. They can quickly train algorithms and provide solutions to specific issues, much faster than any human ever could. 

Final Words

The bottom line is - AI cybersecurity enterprise solutions are capable of meeting the needs of current security requirements. Using practices such as automation, fast response times, and advanced machine learning, AI can increase efficiency, and automatize most manual processes. 

The sooner you adopt an AI cybersecurity solution, the easier it will be to manage future security threats. One thing is for sure, cybercriminals will keep finding new methods of breaching systems, and you must be ready to stop them as soon as they try something new. AI is the only solution that can stay one step in front of cybercriminals, and even though it is ever-changing can be expensive, it's well worth the investment.