AI: Friend or Foe? Security Pros Unsure of the Answer
Organizations know the benefits, but they are also aware that today’s attackers have unique capabilities to cause destruction.
Sterling, Va.-based information provider Neustar, in its latest International Cyber Benchmarks Index for October 2018, revealed what 301 senior professionals across six the Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and U.S. markets think are trending cybersecurity issues.
According to the report, security professionals representing a number of industries such as technology, retail, health/pharma, financial services and internet services, recognize the potential of AI in cybersecurity with 87% of respondents agreeing it will make a difference to their company’s defenses. However, the majority are concerned about the possibility of attackers using artificial intelligence against their company. As a result, nearly 60% of security leaders are nervous about implementing AI technology within their organizations.
“Artificial intelligence has been a major topic of discussion in recent times – with good reason,” Rodney Joffe, head of the Neustar International Security Council and Neustar SVP and Fellow, said. “There is immense opportunity available, but as we’ve seen today with this data, we’re at a crossroads. Organizations know the benefits, but they are also aware that today’s attackers have unique capabilities to cause destruction with that same technology. As a result, they’ve come to a point where they’re unsure if AI is a friend or foe.”
Joffe added, “So what’s needed now is for security teams to prioritize education around AI, not only to ensure that the most efficient security strategies have been implemented, but to give organizations the opportunity to embrace, and not fear, this technology.”
As far as other threats, during the August-September 2018 timeframe, distributed denial-of-service attack (22%) was the current greatest concern followed closely by system compromise (20%), ransomware (15%), intellectual property stealing (15%), financial theft (13%) and insider threat (11%).
However, respondents also perceived a DDoS occurrence (49%) as an increasing threat to organizations with 46% of enterprises already on the receiving end of a DDoS attack in the third quarter, a higher proportion than in previous reporting periods. Growing threat apprehensions also included social engineering email (48%), generalized phishing (47%) and ransomware (45%).
Organization perceived the most likely increase in threats to be from criminals and unknown actors. These threats are also perceived to be increasing the most from the world at large and the least from within their own company.
Among the other notable revelations noted just under half (48%) of organizations have already begun to adopt IPv6, the most recent version of the internet protocol, and 16% have not started;
The International Cyber Benchmarks Index is an initiative of the NISC an elite group of select cybersecurity leaders across key industries that assesses the international cybersecurity landscape from the vantage point of security professionals across the Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and U.S. regions.
The index is based on a bi-monthly survey of security professionals conducted via online research. Participants include business managers and senior directors, CTOs and other professionals with a security remit, all of whom provided input based on their own personal opinions.