Artificial Intelligence in Cyber Security – Cyber Attacks and Defence Approach

Artificial Intelligence in Cyber Security is always evolving, say from the old school days when AV was thought to be an effective defender to the present days where AV, SIEM, IPS, endpoint security and protection play a crucial part in building up defenses. But with development in technologies, the existing cybersecurity controls won’t be sufficient to defend against the unforeseen and limitless cyber threats.

Cyber professionals need an upper hand towards cybersecurity, and this can be offered by artificial intelligence(AI) we also call it Artificial Intelligence in Cyber Security. The implementation of Artificial Intelligence in Cyber Security has just begun, and we have a long way to go to understand and exploit its full potential. In this article, we will discuss AI, its types, examples, and applications in detail.

What is Artifiicial Intelligence?

A simulation of human intelligence by computers is called as Artifical Intelligence. But the simulation includes, learning, understanding, logical reasoning, and improvisation. AI can be either strong or weak based on the purpose it was created. Any AI that was created to perform only specific set of tasks is called as Artifical Narrow Intelligence.

AI that is capable of self-correcting and making decisions exactly like a human is called Artificial General Intelligence (which is still a myth). Real-time examples of artificial narrow intelligence include SIRI, Okay Google, Alexa, IBM Watson, and Microsoft Cognitive Services.

Different types of Artificial Intelligence in Cyber Security

Reactive and limited purpose devices

IBM’s Deep Blue is a chess program that was created to defeat its opponent by formulating the pieces and move combinations using permutation and combinations to

deliver the best move for a given position. Same goes for Google’s AlphaGo as well.

Thoery of Mind

This type of AI observes user behavior based on their culture, belief, desires and more. This type of AI has not yet been developed.

Memory limitations

This AI won’t be able to remember everything that did occur in the past after a limited time. Self-driving cars are based on this type of AI.

Self awareness AI

This AI will be able to think exactly like men by analysing the situations and deciding things just like humans. This type of AI is yet to be developed.

Examples of AI

The common examples of AI include Automation, Machine Learning, Robotics, Self-driving cars, and  Virtual AI. Robotics have incorporated AI to deliver the goods or services as promised without the blunders humans can do when the load is high and large output is in demand.

Automation is again something similar to robotics, but with very less influence of AI. Self-driving cars with AI can ease things of the road, with better passenger safety if and only the AI is tested for accuracy and quality multiple times.

Machine learning along with deep learning brings in the fully functional and operational artificial narrow/general intelligence. Deep learning is more like neurons of the human body, bringing the actual reflexes and emotions up for the AI. Apart from the above, Virtual Ai assistant is mostly used by businesses to bring in an extra layer of security and operational excellence to the businesses.

AI Across Verticals

The influence of AI is now spreading across verticals starting from healthcare, manufacturing, education, finance, law, astronomy and more. In healthcare AI assistance is preferred for fetching data on patients, their medical history etc. The ability to convert natural language into a programmable language helps healthcare to take care of outpatients and their daily routines. As we already spoke about manufacturing, AI helps in automation and other robotic operations.

In the case of education, AI facilitates grading systems, and also bring doorstep education through AI-powered education platforms accessible via smartphones, tabs or laptops.

Similarly it helps with law, by fetching the details of taxonomy and ontology related to it.

Will AI be a boon or bane for mankind?

Bane

1. AI can cause a lot of troubles to man kind, if properly executed Artificial General Intelligence can overtake humans and can be out of control, taking non-rational decisions of its own.
2. AI can also reduce jobs for humans, based on its speed, quality, and reliability leading to unemployment.

Boon

1. Artificial Intelligence in Cyber Security will make things simple and easy for humans, by requesting only very little efforts compared to the former times.
2. Artificial Intelligence in Cyber Security will improve over time and will deliver improvised outputs through continuous learning procedures.
3. Artificial Intelligence in Cyber Security will understand the malware and cyberattack over time, hence developing improved intelligence and increased defenses against cyber attacks.

Narrow AI, General AI and Super AI

• Artificial Narrow Intelligence is little less compared to humans, with their expertise in only a narrow field of operation, for example: AlphaGo, AlphaGo Zero, SIRI, Deep Blue etc.
• Artifical General Intelligence will be an equivalent of human intelligence, with simple and easy ways of completing the task by analyzing and making decisions upon it.
• While Aritificial Super Intelligence will surpass human intelligence with increased reliability, credibility, knowledge, problems solving skills and wisdom. This is where researchers believes human mankind could go extinct.

How will AI improvise cybersecurity?

With AI in place researchers will be able to identify and solve problems little earlier, and bring more proactive controls based on the nature of the threat.

• AI can modify the security protocols based on the development of malware and the information available for it, so it would be able to self detect or prevent foreseen threats with variations.
• Artificial Intelligence in Cyber Security can also be used to alert the security professional for any anonymous behaviors in the network, thus giving an upper hand for cybersecurity pros and act in time to avoid becoming victim to any ransomware or remote code executions.
• AI can also be used to define privileges to users automatically based on their role inside the organization thus avoiding the privileged escalation flaws.
• It can also automate updates, decline poor patches, deploy software, and monitor system health based on the application and OS updated.
• Cognitive computing along with Artificial Intelligence in Cyber Security can bring in enhanced security protocols and services against hacking methodologies.

Artificial Intelligence can also go in favor of hackers to break into organizations, they can communicate with command and control server more wisely to break into networks and computers within very less time.

Any technological development comes with its own set of cons, but it’s the nature of humans to evolve and artificial intelligence will play a crucial part in overall and cybersecurity will also get benefited because of it. 

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