AI security tools could be the key to protecting your organization from emerging cyber security threats. Find out how you can leverage this security innovation.
Artificial intelligence (AI) security tools like Darktrace, Vectra, or Microsoft Sentinel are creating a new standard of protection against cyber threats. With the ability to analyze code at a huge scale instantly, and advanced algorithms predicting where threats will arise, these tools are giving organizations a competitive edge in the war on cybercrime.
Cybercriminals, however, are just as capable of creating and exploiting AI tools as organizations and vendors. Those not leveraging AI in their defense face leaving themselves on an uneven playing field.
The key to rapidly adopting this technology is to establish a safe and productive strategy for doing so, to allow you to leverage AI security with confidence. According to our SAP LeanIX AI Report 2024, however, 86% of organizations don't have this in place.
To find out more about how SAP LeanIX can support AI governance and accelerate AI adoption, read more of our report:
REPORT: SAP LeanIX AI Survey Results 2024
LLMs Are About More Than Emails
At first, it seems odd to think of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and large language models (LLMs) as vital for cyber security. We're more accustomed to using revolutionary AI platforms to generate text for documentation.
LLMs, however, can be put to a more important purpose than simply speeding up writing emails. ChatGPT and other LLMs were developed to read and write vast quantities of language, and software code is nothing more than a kind of language.
AI security tools are able to constantly monitor the very core of your IT landscape looking for vulnerabilities and threats. Rather than simply looking for intrusions and known viruses, however, they can identify unknown threats and zero-day vulnerabilities that you'd never even considered.
AI tools can do this by extrapolating what code will do when run, rather than just looking for known viruses and trojans. Not to mention, AI can then fix your code automatically.
The AI can do all of this much faster than any team of humans could. Not to mention, it can do it more rapidly than any team of cyber criminals could counter it without using their own AI tools.
If You Don't Use AI, Cyber Criminals Will
Artificial intelligence (AI) security tools are able to hold off any human cyber security attack, but the power of AI isn't exclusively reserved for the white hats. Cybercriminals are just as capable of leveraging AI as cyber security specialists.
Imagine an automated cyber security attack that attempts to penetrate your security at thousands of entry points at the same time. Worse, this attack could adapt to your defensive measures instantly, creating new malware, trojans, and viruses in seconds.
That's very much the reality of AI-powered cybercrime, and toolsets exist that could create just such an attack. So-called 'dark AI' tools have been discovered available in the dark web, and include:
- WormGPT: a version of ChatGPT-3 with no security or ethical constraints
- XXXGPT: a large language model designed to generate malware that is almost indistinguishable from legitimate, human-written code
- FraudGPT: an AI chatbot designed to create human-sounding text conversations and code for the purpose of fraud
- WolfGPT: a tool trained on malware code libraries to create new malware, as well as conduct advanced, large-scale phishing scams
- ChaosGPT: reportedly the largest LLM ever created, and intended specifically for creating bugs and overwhelming input systems
With cyber criminals arming themselves with AI tools, organizations must do the same to protect themselves. Human cyber security experts can't help to defend against these attacks alone.
Will AI Replace Cyber Security?
This brings us to one of the most commonly asked questions about artificial intelligence (AI) security: will AI security tools replace cybersecurity specialists?
The answer is simple: we will always need human cyber security experts to lead the digital defense of organizations, even as they need to empower themselves with AI tools to succeed.
If two people are fighting and both pick up swords, that doesn't mean one of them can go home and leave the sword to finish the battle. AI is a tool that humans can use to enhance their cyber security, but we'll always need a human in charge to supervise and lead the operation.
While AI can carry out menial tasks at scale and respond instantly, it will never be able to strategize and use creativity for defense in the way humans can. Likewise, technology lacking free will can't ever be immune from exploitation.
Rather than being concerned about being replaced by AI, cyber security specialists need to learn to wield this new technology to stay on the cutting edge of the fight against cybercrime. Unexpectedly, however, the key to accelerating AI adoption is actually careful governance.
AI Adoption Through Governance
Artificial intelligence (AI) security tools are a powerful new weapon in the fight against cybercrime. To leverage AI, however, you need to be careful about its adoption.
Samsung recently discovered that its employees had been uploading proprietary code into ChatGPT to bug-test it. This essentially shared the code with ChatGPT's vendor, OpenAI, and could also have trained ChatGPT on the code, so it would output it to other users outside of Samsung.
From examples like this, it's clear that the "shadow" adoption of AI tools must be governed in order to ensure it's done correctly. Our recent SAP LeanIX AI Report 2024 showed that 90% of the IT experts who responded to our survey agreed with this, but only 14% have clear insight into AI usage in their organization.
Having oversight of AI use and a proper governance framework in place actually allows you to adopt AI security tools confidently. This accelerates AI adoption, rather than holding it back.
To find out more about how SAP LeanIX can support AI governance and accelerate AI adoption, read more of our report:
