By Rich Kenney
About this time every year, the days get shorter, the leaves fall from the trees, and the futurists begin to tell us about the trends that will impact our lives in the coming year. The most prestigious tech predictions come from Gartner. Just as pumpkins arrive in October, Gartner also releases their top 10 Tech Trends for next year. This time, the tenth trend hits close to home. They project that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to play a huge role in cybersecurity in the next 12 months. TechSolutions is already there! Let’s discuss.
As cyberattacks become more aggressive and creative, cybersecurity professionals across the industry must implement new strategies to protect data, such as increasing the use of AI to filter and automate defense activities. Security tools from equipment and software vendors are using Machine Learning (ML) and AI to enhance their tools, decision support, and response operations.
In layman’s terms, the more advanced cybersecurity tools are learning which behaviors are normal, typical, and expected on your computer or your company’s network. Then, when something different happens, flashing alarms go off.
Technically, a well-designed ML application allows the tools to identify trends, detect patterns, and define new types of suspicious threats in real-time … much faster than the old way of protecting against new threats. We no longer wait for the latest threats to be incorporated into a definition update. ML-based security tools will be a powerful addition to your toolkit when aimed at a specific high-value use case such as security monitoring, malware detection, or network anomaly detection.
TechSolutions is happy to report that this future trend is already a reality for many of our clients. We are already integrating hardware and software solutions that use AI and ML to protect your data into our portfolio of security offerings. We saw this coming several years ago, so we performed extensive research and testing to update our catalog of protection techniques. We thought that is something you would want to know.
Here are three quick examples:
- Enabling the risky login setting in Office 365 allows the system to learn about you, specifically when and where you typically read your email. When you do something abnormal, alarms go off. The AI engine knows that you are not likely to be in Hong Kong when 45 minutes ago, you were in Delaware. The system works by actually preventing the attacker in Hong Kong from accessing your email mailbox.
- AI is particularly useful in providing an extra layer of protection alongside the traditional defenses and tools. Our endpoint breach detection software goes after the bad programs on your computer that somehow managed to sneak past other protections you have in place such as antivirus software. It uses its proprietary analysis engine to identify rogue software and provide proven remediation strategies to our technicians in real time.
- Microsoft is getting better at checking email attachments and web links embedded in your incoming email messages. The product is called Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection. It is an artificial intelligence software solution created by Microsoft that detonates attachments and follows hyperlinks to confirm that they are not malicious prior to allowing you to open them. It has learned how to identify harmful attachments or links that could possibly result in a menacing virus or even ransomware.
All this is happening while you operate your business, fulfill your promises to your customers, and maybe even relax. In this case, AI and ML are actively learning about your business so that whatever the bad guys invent next can more likely be spotted and eliminated before it steals or corrupts your data.
AI and ML applications are the next layer of protection that increase the odds that we prevent cyberattacks and data loss. Talk to us about how we are adding to and improving our service offerings specifically concerning added protections for you and your data.
PS: Beware … the cyberattackers won’t stop here. They are also using AI and ML to up their own games. Stay tuned as the war continues.