Technology & IT | Sunday 4 November, 2018 2:19 pm |

Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence are vital components of today’s cybersecurity. However, experts have speculated that the increased use if AI could lead to more attacks and therefore, several measures must be taken to combat the threats. 

The upcoming #MENAISC2018 will take place on the 6th and the 7th of November 2018 and will discuss and highlight the implications of globalization, digital transformation, the integration of Information Technology Systems with Operation Technology environments and cyber security.

The thought-leading conference, in line with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 - which aims to promote an advanced society in the technology sector and enhance the opportunities for top leaders and thinkers to meet in the field of information security in the Kingdom - will host some of the most prominent experts from around the world to discuss the topic of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence and how we can leverage the technology to combat the increasing cyber threats.    

Keeping Pace with Technological Advancement

George Patsis CEO and founder of Obrela Security Industries said “Cyber-attacks range from approximately £300 billion during 2014 to more than £2.2 trillion by 2020 and companies are unable to keep pace” He argued that if this figure proves to be true in the future, it would be much larger than the illegal drug market.

According to McKinsey’s Cyber Risk Maturity Survey, large companies are reporting cross-sector gaps in their risk management capabilities. Furthermore, 90 percent had nascent or developing capabilities, leaving only five to ten percent at a mature state. This has put millions of valuable user information at risk of being stolen and may cause unwanted exposure for the purpose of blackmail and exploitation.

A new era for information security will emerge as soon as vendors and the market realize that methods, products, and services must be challenged to address the enterprise and the root causes of vulnerable infrastructures rather than developing painkillers for the emerging security threats.

 

The Human Factor

Managing Director of Accenture, David Powell stressed the importance of focusing on the human capital as the place to begin from saying “While organizations are investing in the tools and technologies they need to keep up with the digital era. It is important they do not neglect a key factor, their people. To capitalize on the opportunities presented by technology innovations, future organizations need to focus on helping their people become a more fluid, agile and flexible workforce.”

He also explained, “By applying AI, automation, and visualization, intelligent automation will enhance a security professional’s capabilities and reduce the time needed to gain situational awareness and become an effective part of the security organization.” 

Another way to achieve good security standard is by making it easier to bring new hires onboard the security organization. These solutions will help reduce the challenges companies encounter in accessing security talent and enable more flexible workforce capabilities such as freelancing or crowdsourcing.

Implications of a Connected World

Social media has ushered in an era of rapid and widespread access to information, but its conveniences also bring potential risks. While people can easily communicate digitally, the information being communicated can just as easily contain abusive and malicious content.

Natural language processing (NLP) - and computer vision based machine learning algorithms are used to detect threats emanating from social media. 

ZeroFOX’s Gabe Goldhirsh said “NLP is a set of tools that ZeroFOX applies to analyze and search for patterns within text snippets like social media posts, bios and usernames. Depending on the threat, different pieces of information are extracted and analyzed, including the presence of single words or characters, sentiment, part of speech, named entities, URLs, hashtags and emoji’”

 

ZeroFOX deploys machine learning solutions only when necessary, ensuring that its industry-leading social media security platform delivers the most accurate results in the most efficient manner.