Is your business ready to take the next step in cyber-security?

Artificial Intelligence is no longer a futuristic fantasy as it has found its way into many aspects of today’s society. AI is used for cancer research, found in smart, self-driving, cars, intelligent automation within supply chains, and so on. All the while, services like Siri, Google Now, and Alexa bring the concept of intelligent devices out from the industries and into our home, making us more accustomed to smart, thinking devices each day.

 

The relationship between AI & IT-Security

AI is also found within the field of IT-security, where the CYPRO research team spends a lot of time analyzing how to best put it to use. In this context AI can be seen as software which can identify events as they occur, classify them and take action as needed, all without user input. This is due to AI having the ability to accurately identify patterns and any anomalies found within them.

However, AI is not without its darker sides. A survey done by security software firm Cylance shows that 62% of infosec experts believe artificial intelligence will be used in cyber attacks during 2018. According to a Wired article, AIs are already starting to be deployed by hackers, using them to infiltrate networks and stay undetected. An example of the prowess an AI can posses in this field is found within the 2016 DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge, a Capture the Flag challenge where each participant must complete a range of tasks related to IT security, such as reverse engineering and web hacking, with one major quirk – Every participant is completely autonomous. This was the first challenge of its kind and proved that, even last year, AIs were more than capable of penetrating systems and exploiting vulnerabilities.

The use of AI has also been proven in social engineering. Around 91% of data breaches come from phishing, proving that a system isn’t safe if only protection from technical vulnerabilities is in place. In 2016 two data scientist from the security firm, and one of our trusted partners,  ZeroFOX performed an experiment to see which was more efficient at getting users to interact with malicious links on Twitter; Humans or an artificial intelligence. The AI in question, SNAP_R, was able to send out tweets 6 times faster than the human and lured around 5 times more users. This was done by scraping the feeds of targets and generating messages and hashtags from the targets own language.

 

Bringing defense into the next generation

While the possibilities of AI have been demonstrated when it comes to exploiting vulnerabilities, its defensive uses are not to be overlooked. Networks and systems today are often large and hard to manage, filled with different devices and traffic types – The popularity of IoT-devices aren’t making the job for security analysts easier, either. Where human analysts are lacking, however, AI isn’t; Newer technologies, such as IBM’s Watson have the possibility to drastically improve the speed of which data can be analyzed and threats detected.

A case study done by Sogeti Luxembourg saw a 50% increase in analyzing speed, allowing threats to be responded to in minutes rather than hours or days. Watson can do this by actually understanding and actively learning about threats and security topics. By finding otherwise difficult-to-detect patterns through obscure data points and making sense of the massive amounts of data a system receives, it gives the security analysts the upper hand against hackers.

 

The new advanced attacks from AI could come from all directions, and use
previously unknown attack vectors to compromise the victim system.

 

Where does CYPRO come in?

This demonstrates that AI is here to stay and implementing it defensively in your system is worth considering. CYPRO is a partner of the most advanced security AI suppliers and also supplies the aforementioned AI from IBM – Watson. CYPRO integrates, supports, and makes sure that the customers benefit from the most advanced security solutions on the market. Being a trusted partner and protecting our customers is our call.

 

Contributors

• Max Kardos
• Viktor Uppströmer
• Christian Yng