A lack of modern age is holding American businesses back from realising the benefits of AI for computer security, according to ManageEngine, an IT protection, operations, and service management software firm.
According to Ramprakash Ramamoorthy, head of AI studies at Zoho Corporation and ManageEngine, some local companies are having trouble achieving a return on investment from AI. Digital age, he explained, is the key to unlocking AI-driven benefits, such as automatic detection and answer as well as the swift retraining of computer security personnel.
AI’s ROI impacted by modern age
Due to the disconnect between systems and agencies, AI return on investment is challenging to achieve.
” There is a lot of hype around AI”, Ramamoorthy said. ” Yes, there are Artificial answers in a lot of software devices these days, including the security devices, but it’s very hard to get the return on investment”.
According to Ramamoorthy,” the tendency we have observed is that if three various companies use the same AI load, they will have three very different returns on investments and three very different experience from AI.”
Part of the problem is that American businesses often have an “inter-departmental online break” — meaning some departments are very digitised, while others are not, creating considerable separation between departments.
According to Ramamoorthy,” Digital age is the first step to attaining AI age,” “one of the bigger causes AI is not effective is the inter-departmental online break.”
This break exists, Ramamoorthy said, because software suppliers have typically sold goods directly to individual business agencies, such as marketing and sales or funding agencies.
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Digital maturity: The foundation for achieving returns from AI
According to Ramamoorthy, many Australian businesses are having trouble with a lack of digital maturity. The ManageEngine team defines digital maturity as:” Digital maturity across businesses.
- Having streamlined processes.
- having business data that is simplified.
- Investing in existing rule-based automation.
Organizations that streamline processes and data and adopt rules-based automation can achieve a level of digital maturity that makes it possible for AI to use data and processes holistically rather than in silos.
” AI does not like data in silos”, Ramamoorthy added. The AI’s ability to see all the data in one place allows it to make better predictions, and the organization’s perception of its impact is significantly different.
With complete data visibility, cyber security operations become more successful.
According to Ramamoorthy, the advantages of AI for cyber security come from being able to see and interpret data across the organization.
Instead of relying on isolated intelligence, AI with a broad view of an organistion’s technology and user behaviour can monitor the entire infrastructure for anomalies, including logs, authentication, user permissions, and devices, allowing for more comprehensive oversight, he added.
AI can find anomalies in cyber data.
The main benefit of AI for cyber security is its ability to recognize deviations from what has been established through data as typical system or user behavior. For instance, an AI model could be used to identify a user trying to authenticate from an unusual location or device.
Anything that deviates from normal can be flagged as an abnormality and can be cracked, according to Ramamoorthy, who can model what is normal at a specific point in time. Therefore, the multi-dimensional analysis approach of AI combining past data is one of the game-changing strategies for AI in security.
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AI can identify and respond to cyber-attacks
The ransomware attack can be tracked throughout its lifecycle and be accelerated by the use of AI, browser security tools, user-entity and behavioral analysis, and network monitoring.
” Basically, with AI across the stack, you will be able to triage the incident and shut it down very quickly, much better than when you do a rule-based non AI system”, Ramamoorthy told TechRepublic.
AI will increase efficiency for cyber teams in digitally mature organizations.
Ramamoorthy anticipates that AI will help cyber security teams become more productive, noting that the technology will aid businesses in training or upgrading their workforces.
He also acknowledged that onboarding information can be” a mess” due to constant business evolution, often resulting in outdated documentation. However, AI will be able to provide this information to new hires more quickly.
” It will all be there, providing a perspective for a new member to get started”, Ramamoorthy said. With the advent of AI, “if they are being productive within three months right now, they will be productive within 15 days,” meaning that more productive employees will be very informed.
AI will recommend next-best actions
Ramamoorthy thinks that cyber security as a discipline may not choose to use fully automated remediation.
However, AI will be able to identify cyber security incidents and advise teams on the best course of action, enabling the “human in the loop” to make better decisions and shorten turnaround times.
” You are presenting the human with the next-best action given the current circumstances”, he explained. ” If there are 500 different variables, it is answering the question,’ What is the next best action that you can do?'”
AI agents acting as the next big thing in cyber security might be the best option.
AI agents will be used in cyber security over the next two to three years, according to Ramamoorthy.
Because they link semi-structured data with structured information already present in an IT enterprise, he said,” AI agents will be the missing link bringing LLMs to enterprises.”
This will grow to include more and more unstructured information over time.
” Today, data has to be semi-structured to get some relevance”, Ramamoorthy noted. ” As our data processing capabilities increase, with more unstructured information, AI will still be able to make stronger decisions. That’s where we see the technology going in the next five to 10 years”.
