Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 20 | Page 35

+ EDITOR’S QUESTION ///////////////// GORAV ARORA, SOLUTION ARCHITECT AT THALES W ith new threats emerging every day and explosion of data needed for analysis, businesses can no longer have a black and white approach to cybersecurity when it comes to humans vs. automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI). It should not be about which is more effective, but rather how to utilise the strengths of each in spotting the vulnerabilities a business has. AI and automation are already having a massive impact on cybersecurity. In fact, with a machine’s ability to analyse large amounts of data quickly, learn from trends and detect anomalies in data in real-time, everything from how we detect, protect, manage and mitigate threats, will help us to continue to fight the attackers head on. However, AI and automation do have their limitations, such as the reliance on the data it has been trained with and its inability to convey new threats to the business. If, at point of entry or anywhere along the daisy chain, the data has a mistake or has been tampered with by an attacker, the error will continue down the chain and the end results will be wrong. This is where humans must ensure that the right security protocols are in place, with encryption, key management and device and human authentication to help mitigate any outside threats. For humans, our strengths reside in our ability to be situationally aware. Businesses should be hiring people that have the www.intelligentcio.com “ RATHER THAN FOCUS ON WHICH IS BETTER, BUSINESS LEADERS SHOULD BE LOOKING AT A HYBRID APPROACH TO SPOT AND PREVENT THE VULNERABILITIES IN THEIR COMPANIES. capabilities to understand the continually evolving risks facing the company – from outside threats, to identifying the internal processes that could be making the organisation vulnerable. This is particularly relevant for emerging and developing threats which AI would not be aware of due to the lack of data around this. Humans can also operate as ethical hackers whose job is to think like cybercriminals in understanding the vulnerabilities a business has that a hacker would look to exploit. Having automation in place frees up humans to search for signals and correlations, to be able to focus on the emerging/novel threats and also gives them the space to communicate this back to the rest of the business. So, rather than focus on which is better, business leaders should be looking at a hybrid approach to spot and prevent the vulnerabilities in their companies. n INTELLIGENTCIO 35