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EDITOR’S QUESTION
AMMAR ENAYA, REGIONAL
DIRECTOR – MIDDLE EAST,
TURKEY & NORTH AFRICA
AT VECTRA
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A
I is increasingly becoming a
fundamental tool in reducing risk
and helping organisations improve
their cybersecurity capabilities.
The velocity and diversity of cyberattacks
is growing at lightning speed. According to
the 2019 M-Trends report it takes a median
of 177 days in EMEA before a breach is
detected, the majority of which are only
discovered through a notification from an
external party.
As a consequence, Chief Information
Security Officers (CISOs) are realising that
they need to focus on rapid and effective
detection and response to cyber-attacks.
But manual threat hunting simply can’t
scale or perform in a timely manner against
this gargantuan task, and so leveraging
AI to augment and force multiple security
capabilities is increasingly valuable.
Appropriately trained AI goes beyond
simply looking for statistical anomalies,
by distinguishing between benign and
threatening digital behaviour. AI powered
security automation is the rational response
to today’s rapidly diversifying threat
landscape and ever-expanding attack surface.
By automating time-consuming attacker
detection and response duties, skilled
analysts can focus on prevention and
remediation, making the threat hunting
process more efficient and effective.
Another benefit of using AI has to do
with resource constraints. There are over
one million cybersecurity jobs left open
www.intelligentcio.com
worldwide and twice the number of open
positions than there are certified security
professionals to fill jobs mandating
certifications such as Certified Information
Systems Security Professional (CISSP).
The skills shortage plaguing the
cybersecurity workforce is one of the biggest
threats to the enterprise, as it restricts the
ability to respond to cyberattacks quickly
and efficiently. Faced with a multitude of
unfilled positions, as well as the challenge of
retaining top talent, security leaders must
look inwards and launch new strategies to
overcome the persistent shortage of human
capital holding it back.
“
AI POWERED
SECURITY
AUTOMATION IS
THE RATIONAL
RESPONSE TO
TODAY’S RAPIDLY
DIVERSIFYING
THREAT
LANDSCAPE AND
EVER-EXPANDING
ATTACK SURFACE.
The use of AI can address this cybersecurity
skills gap by helping to increase the number
of qualified cybersecurity professionals. AI
lowers the technical barriers of entry into the
profession and allows less trained individuals
to still be effective on the front lines of the
cybersecurity battle.
In addition, AI will allow existing
cybersecurity professionals to move
up-market by leveraging AI to find more
complex attack scenarios before they do
significant damage. When acquiring new
cybersecurity analysts, enterprises will be
increasingly turning towards AI for help.
The experience of fighting yesterday’s
battles doesn’t prepare us well for
tomorrow’s cyber-wars, that’s why
augmenting human capabilities with AI
is making a tangible difference in the risk
management and resolution of ‘unknown
unknowns’ – cyberthreats. n
INTELLIGENTCIO
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