How Artificial Intelligence Can Be Used To Combat Increasing Cyber Attacks

One of the most popular acronyms of the decade - IoT actually stands for Internet of Things but due to the rising cyber crime cases in the past few years, many are decoding it as Internet of Threats. Cybersecurity Ventures, a pioneer organisation in the field of internet security, claims that cyber crime is going to increase the world expenses up to 6 trillion USD annually by 2021. Today, hackers are not only targeting the corporate data, but they are also threats to the security of various countries. Recently, they managed to steal the details of a deal between the Indian Navy and French submarine maker 'DCNS' even before the deployment of Scorpène submarines.

How Pandemic is IoT Threats
From financial institutions to defence research agencies all are under the radar of malicious hackers and spies. A few months back, one of the spokespeople of NATO said, "In recent events, cyber attacks have been part of hybrid warfare". This means the tentacles of modern warfare has spread in the cyber world too. Even the supremo of world's most powerful country seemed afraid when he said, "The increasing prevalence and severity of malicious cyber-enabled activities originating from, or directed by persons located, in whole or in substantial part, outside the United States constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States. I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with this threat."

Based on machine-to-machine (M2M) low-cost sensor network, IoT can help revolutionise the businesses in almost every work domain - be it Operations, Logistics, HR, Finance, Marketing, R&D, or the Customer Support. And, every industry is benefiting from the useful presence of IoT in both developed and developing countries. In contrast to its endless benefits, IoT devices are also very much prone to cyber attacks. Technology has also empowered the criminals and they can easily develop a bonnet without investing much time and money.

How AI Can Be a Game Changer
As threats grew even more complicated and targeted, businesses and governments should take every available opportunity to learn more about the most advanced and cost effective bespoke security solutions. Artificial intelligence hasn't just strengthened the IoT, it's also very effective while detecting and combating the security threats because identifying online minuscule shifts is easier for AI-based technologies than the conservative approaches. Researchers at MIT's Computer Science and CSAIL achieved a big breakthrough when they developed an AI-based system which is capable of detecting 85 percent of threats from more than 3.6 billion log files each day.

With the help of Big Data Analytical tools, AI helps to read and study the changing behaviour of the internet users and whenever a noticeable deviation occurs, it either blocks the threat or issues warning to the main server where the security team takes appropriate actions very promptly. Now, security analysts don't just address the specific problem/threat, but they also take actions to discover other potential threats of shared characteristics. Simultaneously, they anticipate a problem and resolve it with customised security solutions. And, recent developments in the robotic engineering have supported well in strengthening the AI against IoT threats.

How AI Is Shaping the Future of Cyber Security
The marriage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with Analyst Intuition (AI), i.e. AI-Squared is a remarkable breakthrough in the field of cyber security. It works to detect odd/suspicious activities using Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) and Big Data analysis tools to sense and counter behavioural anomalies.

AI is in truth a technology and future applications will need some protocols for quality control. This would ensure that the software and systems work as they were programmed to. Cyber attacks should also be resisted by them in their own right and not overstep their bounds. They must have some verification and validation measurements to confirm security at times of attacks.

The most advanced and cost effective bespoke AI security solutions such as Multifactor Authentication, Data Loss Prevention, Advanced Persistent Threat Protection (APTP), and IPS/ Firewall have helped many government agencies and private businesses/intuitions to protect their sensitive data and billion dollars secret information from the malicious cyber attacks. Hence, the use of effective security solutions can help greatly to reduce the threats as well as risks and facilitate the businesses in meeting their goals and objectives.