Cyber attacks are an increasing issue for companies all over the world. So, how do companies use AI to protect themselves online? Read on to find out.
Nowadays, companies face hundreds, if not thousands, of hacks every day and they need to protect themselves. One person or team operating a system to stop these attacks just isn’t enough and more institutions are now leaning on AI to defend them.
You use AI for protection when playing your favorite games, visiting websites, and doing online shopping. We’ll now look at why companies have chosen AI for their cyber security and its impact on the online space.
Why AI?
The first question most people have is, why AI? What does AI offer that a program or cyber security team doesn’t? The simple answer is that AI can do thousands of protection jobs simultaneously and be in multiple places at once.
We’ll get into the details in the rest of the article, but in essence, AI can do the jobs of thousands of cyber security professionals. This means that there is less chance of human error and more chance of the AI knowing how to deal with a situation.
New Threat Detection
AI shines in its ability to detect new threats. Considering AI can learn without being taught, the system picks up on threats, understands what the threat looks like and how it functions, and then adds this info to its memory.
This enables it to pick up threats way sooner than any human could and have the ability to pick up brand new threats that appear every day. This is the area where so many systems have failed before: they have been able to detect and stop threats they know, but the moment a brand new one appears, the tools to stop it aren’t available.
Even if it is faced with a threat that it hasn’t encountered before, AI understands what to look for; therefore, it may not recognize the threat as malware or a hack immediately, but it can identify aspects that will alert it to being a hack.
Defeating Bots
We all probably know what a bot is by now: a fake account on a platform like Instagram which makes inflammatory remarks or tries to sell something. However, bots can be far more dangerous than just posting automated comments.
Bots are capable of stealing accounts, taking over identities, and falsifying credentials. This means that unless you can identify a bot immediately, you never know if you are dealing with a dangerous one, a regular one (like a search engine crawler) or a human. AI enables companies to analyze vast amounts of data and then specify which traffic to their website is fraudulent and which traffic is human. The AI can then block the fraudulent activity and allow the actual human activity through.
Breach Prediction
Being able to stop attacks while they’re happening is great, but what’s even better is being able to spot an attack before it happens; AI can do this too. This adds a level of protection that manual security just can’t.
AI can spot dangerous activity long before it becomes a genuine threat, meaning that after it has been learning for a while, hacks will become more minor and less common because the AI knows what behavior to look out for and can stop it at the source.
Constant Protection
The most significant advantage when using AI for your cyber security is that there is constant protection. The AI never has to be turned on and, unless something serious happens, it can’t be turned off either.
It is always running, always learning, and always reading data. This means that there will never be a time when you have to check up on it unless, once again, something significant happens that upends the whole system. This 24/7 protection is almost unmatched.
Long-Lasting Solution
One of, if not the most, significant advantage to using AI for your cyber security is that it is a long-lasting solution. No software will become obsolete and no subscriptions will need to be renewed.
The AI is constantly learning and adapting, and therefore it can’t be out-of-date at any point. The longer the AI is working, the better. This means that it is processing more data, learning, understanding more threats, and offering more protection.
AI Transforms Weaknesses into Strengths
While AI can block hacks and malware, cyber-criminals can use AI to improve their attacks and make them harder to stop. This means that even though your protection is becoming more advanced, so are the attacks. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Even though the attack is more advanced, the AI can still learn what to do and protect your system.
Unfortunately, as AI advances for security purposes, it advances for criminal purposes simultaneously. As long as the AI keeps learning, however, the system it is protecting will stay safe.
As you can see, AI has revolutionized the way companies and individuals stay protected online. While threats are becoming more advanced and frequent, AI is growing alongside it, becoming more intelligent and adept at stopping these new attacks. AI is also improving every day, and while we may never reach a stage where there are no online hacks and threats, the protection will only get better.
