: Adjective 1. Of or denoting a business, industry, or equity that grows or is expected to grow…
Typically, growth has positive connotations when discussed in most aspects of life. Whether it is academics, business, or even sports, everyone should strive to move forward in a positive manner. However, in accordance with National Cyber Security Awareness Month, I want to touch on the double-edged sword of artificial intelligence and machine learning in terms of the growing cybersecurity industry. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, the cost of cybercrime is predicted to hit $8 trillion this year and grow to $10.5 trillion by 2025. That’s with a T. Research suggests that one in two businesses have been victims of cybercrime since 2020. It has and will continue to become increasingly difficult not to have your information hacked.
What is artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) doing to help (or hurt) this growing industry?
They can be valuable tools to help us navigate the cybersecurity landscape. Specifically, it can help protect against sophisticated and malicious malware, ransomware, and social engineering attacks. The AI’s capabilities can and are currently being used to synthesize data and predict threats. AI and ML can provide a faster means to identify new attacks. Essentially, these tools are Google searches on steroids because they cipher and interpret the data for you, offering quick analysis and threat detection. This process leads to faster recovery and less data at risk for all the companies that have access to your sensitive information.
While it can be used to identify threat anomalies and enhance cyber defense capabilities rapidly, it can also be used by the threats themselves.
Criminal hackers and groups from countries like China and North Korea are already using this technology to find and exploit vulnerabilities in our systems. Just like how quickly threats can be detected, these hackers can also use the same kind of AI and ML to find holes in any system. This scenario is the worst kind of reverse uno card, which specifically targets small businesses and, truthfully, any company that is not investing in the newest firewalls. Not to mention the deepfakes we have already seen cause reactions in this country’s markets and political sphere.
Is there a solution? Can we go back to analog? Record players and classic cars have made a roaring comeback. However, I am excited about the potential applications this rapidly evolving technology can provide. Maybe AI can even help find missing F35s; who knows?
October 2023
