Cyber Work podcast: The current state of AI in cybersecurity

Introduction

Eric Stevens, vice president of engineering and principal architect at ProtectWise, gave the Cyber Work with Infosec podcast an insider view of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in cybersecurity. Eric talked us through his own experience in AI, as well as some of the findings of ProtectWise’s latest report about AI in cybersecurity, titled “The State of AI in Cybersecurity.” The report was commissioned by Osterman Research.

Here are some of the key notes from Eric Steven’s interview.

Where does AI fit in the cybersecurity industry?

AI has become a very broad term, and we’re seeing lots of marketing confusion. When people think of AI, they think of things like machine learning and deep learning. But they can also think of chatbots: although they don’t use automated learning, they can still come under the heading of AI. Because of this overlap, our research allowed the respondent some leeway in terms of AI definition. 

The enablement of humans using AI is key. Identifying anomalous behavior is one such use. For example, AI can be used to look at data that would otherwise be defined as a privacy violation if a human did so.

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The automation of cybersecurity investigation and response ultimately saves security analyst time.

Who is using AI security products?

Companies of all sizes are using AI in a cybersecurity setting. However, the research ProtectWise carried out looked at organizations with a thousand employees or more.

An interesting finding from the research was that small security teams are as likely to use AI-based security tools as their larger counterparts. The deciding factor in the choice to move to an AI-based system is the alert volume size. This is likely due to the need to handle large volumes efficiently.

Companies, on the whole, see the executive class (Read more...)