AI & Data Protection: How Artificial Intelligence is Enhancing Data Security
Whether you’re a fan or foe of AI’s widening influence, the simple reality is that it’s going to be a part of our lives now and into the future. Beyond intelligent chatbots and image and video generation, AI is also becoming a core part of the data security world.
In this article, we’re taking a look at AI’s role in enhancing data security, the equal risks AI presents to data security, and how businesses of all sizes can account for both the good and bad of AI and data protection.
The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Enhancing Data Security
Artificial intelligence involves a range of different technologies that work together to mimic the cognitive functions associated with humans. The intention is for AI to be able to perform these tasks more efficiently, through faster generative responses, data analysis, and machine learning.
In the data security landscape, AI is utilised in various ways, from bolstering the efficiency of antivirus and antimalware programs to being able to identify abnormalities in security systems faster than people can. At its core, AI helps expedite and expand the capabilities of data protection and threat detection by lending these processes more human-like intelligence and deduction skills.
Key examples include:
- Machine learning for better threat protection. Machine learning develops through analysing previous data sets so that it can more efficiently predict and recognise similar patterns down the line. The more it learns, the more effective it becomes at recognising oddities and malicious files.
- AI can be used to help security professionals produce reports and identify abnormalities that may take people longer to recognise.
- Through AI, professionals can receive enhanced troubleshooting support and get a hand in policy creation.
- The automated streamlining of security updates, reports, historical threat tracking, cloud performance enhancements, and more.
Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Data Security
When talking about the future of AI and data security, there are two sides to this equation.
The first side is how AI assists in enhancing data security. As we touched on above, utilising AI for data security efforts can lead to more efficient processes and a level of artificial assistance that can help IT and cybersecurity professionals cover more bases at once.
Whether this is the machine-learning capabilities of antivirus programs or an AI’s ability to identify a file or process that’s out of place, there’s genuine power in what AI brings to the table. And given we’re still in the relatively early stages of artificial intelligence, these capabilities will only get more robust over the coming months and years.
The other side of the AI and data security coin is the fact that much in the way AI is being used to enhance data security, it’s also being used to enhance the capabilities of cybercriminals and the many ways they can breach and compromise systems.
This is, of course, a logical evolution within the data security space. Cybercriminals and cybersecurity professionals have been in a constant back-and-forth over the years, with cybercriminals looking for exploits while cybersecurity professionals and programmers work to identify and eliminate exploits from software and hardware.
Now, cybercriminals are similarly utilising AI to craft more robust malware, develop more sophisticated phishing scams, and even confuse other AI systems by introducing malicious data sets.
AI is also being used in social engineering efforts (by manipulating users to share sensitive information), and some of these efforts have been profoundly effective. Some cybercriminals will create deepfakes and AI-powered replicas of people’s voices to manipulate staff members into divulging information they otherwise never would have in the past.
How Businesses Can Account for the AI Age of Data Security
This equal rise in AI security solutions and AI security risks means businesses still need to remain vigilant in their data security efforts. As with any other aspect of AI, you shouldn’t be wholly dependent on artificial intelligence to adequately manage your security.
The best approach is to ensure you have qualified IT security professionals on your team or to outsource your security to an IT provider. With the proliferation of AI in the data security industry, IT companies like Setup4 are keeping their finger on the pulse of the many developments, benefits and pitfalls it presents.
Whether you’re talking about Microsoft’s Copilot or the AI-enhanced capabilities of antivirus programs like Kaspersky or Malwarebytes, you’ll want to use these with the oversight of cybersecurity experts who are up to date with the rapid changes in AI – both those that enhance protection and those that risk it.
If you need help navigating the new world of AI-powered data security, we can help. Get in touch with the team at Setup4 today.
