AI Assistants Are The Future Of Cybersecurity
Are you ready for how cybersecurity will evolve in the coming years?
Automation .. automation everywhere! It seems to be the trend around the globe, with people jumping over each other to see what task they can offload to an AI bot
Others are worried the big bad AI is going to run away with their job and leave them unemployed
Let's face it .. no one likes doing admin work like de-cluttering your mailbox or writing minutes of meetings
We would much rather focus on the more productive side of things
If a task can be offloaded somewhere, then why not?
AI has been a game-changer in this field, with people automating all sorts of mundane activities with custom versions of tools like ChatGPT
Tools like ZAPIER are going beyond automation now
They are tapping into the power of OpenAI API to create AI assistants that can generate a daily digest of your important emails and even answer questions on your behalf!
Like it or not .. AI is going to be doing a lot of heavy lifting in the future when it comes to these tasks
So what about Cybersecurity ??
How Cybersecurity Will Change
When it comes to the AI intersecting with Cybersecurity .. most of the talk seems to focus on one of two things:
All the cool new products that will come out powered by Machine Learning and AI
All the risks/attacks that AI and GenAI are going to introduce and how to go around mitigating them
One key area that gets missed out is just how many repetitive tasks are going to get offloaded onto AI bots once they get going
It is honestly inevitable!
Once CISOs and CTOs see the value of letting an AI bot handle mundane and repetitive tasks in Cybersecurity, like report writing, scanning, and hardening .. there will be no turning back.
There are a few tasks that can be easily offloaded, given their repetitive nature:
Vulnerability Scanning of a Server or Application
Patching ( who likes that, honestly ! )
Verifying user permissions within a system
L1 SOC engineers who respond to basic security alerts
If we take a look at the job description for a typical L1 SOC engineer, then it typically goes along the lines of
“responsible for monitoring, reporting, and escalating events to SOC Analysts. Monitor the analytics tools and perform alert management and initial incident qualification. Raise tickets and assign criticality …. “
What is in this activity that cannot be offloaded onto an AI agent?
Note: I am not discouraging you if you are planning to apply to be a SOC engineer, just informing you that tasks of this nature might have a limited life span in the future!
A Brave New (AI-driven) World
While this might sound like AI is going to take over a lot of cybersecurity jobs in the future .. the reality is the opposite.
As more and more tasks get offloaded to AI .. the following questions will crop up.
Who will secure these AI agents?
Who will manage the level of access that these agents will have within the network?
What if attackers can “take over” these agents and make them complete their tasks?
How will a Cybersecurity agent distinguish between a valid command and an invalid one?
AI-based cybersecurity agents will open up a new niche within Cybersecurity with their vulnerabilities.
Cyber-criminals will have a field day trying to manipulate these assistants by feeding them malicious commands and inputs to see how far they can penetrate within a system.
A new field for penetration testing of AI bots will open up with its methodology and tools.
Not to mention the privacy nightmare that might happen if these AI bots happen to be cloud-based and are collecting data to carry out their tasks!
The Way Ahead
CISOs will need to think long and hard about embracing this new paradigm shift in how Cybersecurity will function in the future.
A primary challenge I foresee for them is balancing relying too much on AI and not using it.
Human skills and expertise cannot be replaced, so the trick will be finding the key areas where this expertise is needed.
An ideal scenario will be the combination of AI cybersecurity assistants working under the supervision and oversight of a human cybersecurity expert.
Exciting times are ahead!
Thanks for reading ! If you found this topic interesting be sure to check out my new best-selling GenAI Risk and Security course on Udemy
I see AI assistants becoming pivotal in streamlining tasks while teaming up with human expertise to counter new vulnerabilities. Exciting times indeed.