Pradeep Sekar, Managing Director of Optiv India, helps us navigate the AI and cybersecurity nexus.
In a world where enterprises are rapidly adopting new technologies to innovate and boost efficiency, there’s an unfortunate parallel trend: the escalation of cyber threats.
As these adversaries become more sophisticated, can Artificial Intelligence (AI) offer a solution to help enterprises fend off these digital assailants?
To gain insight into this crucial question, I sat down with Pradeep Sekar, Managing Director of Optiv India, a leading cybersecurity solution integrator and advisory firm.
Sekar states that AI in cybersecurity is not a novel concept. It traces its roots back to Alan Turing’s “imitation game” in the 1950s. He categorizes AI into three types: narrow AI, general AI, and super AI.
Sekar categorizes AI into three types: narrow AI, general AI, and super AI. Narrow AI, designed for specific tasks like autonomous vehicles or text generation, is the most prevalent. General AI, mirroring human intellect, remains a future goal. Super AI, with superhuman intelligence, lies even further ahead.
AI’s transformative impact
The conversation then takes an intriguing turn as we delve into the recent AI phenomenon that has been making waves worldwide—the release of Chat GPT by OpenAI. This powerful language model has captivated the imagination of businesses across the globe, leading to the development of generative AI-based applications within organizations. However, Sekar emphasizes that security has often taken a backseat in this AI-driven innovation rush, which is a critical concern that needs to be addressed.
AI in security: A powerful defense against cybercrime
Sekar underscores the fundamental role of AI in bolstering cybersecurity. He believes that the key to combating cybercrime lies in early threat detection and the strategic deployment of preventive measures. He envisions AI-based solutions that can scan and analyze millions of websites, monitor thousands of visitors’ activities, and respond swiftly to potential threats.
“This proactive approach could significantly enhance cybersecurity, making AI an indispensable tool in defending against cybercrime,” says Sekar.
Countering AI-powered threats
The conversation shifts to the growing challenge of adversaries wielding AI capabilities superior to those of enterprises. Sekar shares the potential risks, drawing parallels to past incidents like the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
“Threat actors could exploit AI models designed to scrape data from the open web, leading to the creation of deepfakes that could compromise individual credentials,” Sekar says.
Highlights how cybercriminals are now utilizing generative AI and large language models like Chat GPT to craft malicious code, malware, phishing emails, and discover new vulnerabilities, all of which pose grave threats to organizations. To counteract these malicious AI applications, the need for “good AI” becomes evident.
Harnessing “good AI” for defense
Sekar outlines several essential characteristics of “good AI” that can be effectively controlled and harnessed for defense against AI-powered threats. These characteristics include proper training with diverse datasets to facilitate early threat detection and the reduction of false positives.
In today’s cybersecurity landscape, organizations often grapple with an overwhelming number of security tools, leading to what is commonly referred to as “tools sprawl.” Large organizations typically employ an average of 70 different security tools, which pose a significant operational burden for security teams. “Good AI” can be leveraged to minimize false positives, and examine and analyze them, ultimately alleviating the strain on security teams worldwide.
Optiv’s blueprint: Collaborate to mitigate
The conversation concludes with a focus on how Optiv is actively leveraging AI to benefit its customers. Sekar emphasizes the critical importance of addressing cybersecurity threats, with a particular focus on cybercrime, which poses a significant threat to businesses globally.
For instance, the American healthcare industry, plagued by over 5,000 data breaches and privacy violations from 2009 to 2022, underscores the immense challenges that organizations face. The average cost of a data breach, as reported by Verizon’s data breach investigations, stands at a staggering $4.24 million.
“To combat these evolving threats, we collaborate with our clients to identify specific AI use cases, including threat monitoring, behavioral analysis, vulnerability management, and fraud detection,” Sekar says.
These applications enable organizations to scan vast datasets, monitor device parameters, analyze user activity logs, and detect threats in real-time. Behavioral analysis empowers organizations to identify suspicious patterns and swiftly block them. AI streamlines vulnerability management by automating the review of event logs and prioritizing remediation. Furthermore, AI assists forensic investigators in detecting fraudulent activities, a critical need, especially in the financial services sector.
AI for cost optimization
In addressing concerns about Chief Information Security Officers (CISO) budgets, Sekar discusses how AI can potentially minimize security costs.
“We have seen big organizations having disparate data repositories across data lakes. Now managing and maintaining all this is a huge burden. There are organizations who are spending 10% of their IT budgets just managing these and keeping them up to date,” Sekar says.
Many enterprises approach Optiv seeking opportunities to reduce the financial burden of data management. Organizations often lack visibility into the comprehensive costs of data management, which encompass data sourcing, architecture, governance, and consumption.
By implementing AI-based solutions, organizations can automate critical data management tasks such as data discovery, ingestion, cleansing, and pipeline engineering. This automation significantly enhances data activities’ efficiency and effectiveness, ultimately resulting in substantial cost savings.
“While AI may not eliminate costs entirely, its ability to streamline data management processes and reduce operational expenses represents a promising avenue for cost minimization in the cybersecurity domain,” Sekar says.
In a rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape, AI has emerged as a powerful ally, providing organizations with the tools needed to defend against cyber threats and optimize data management, ultimately ensuring a safer and more efficient digital future.
