The Role of GenAI in the Field of Cybersecurity

Artificial intelligence is developing at a rapid pace, sparking discussions and debates about its potential benefits and destructive power across various industries. In the field of cybersecurity, AI is a double-edged sword: it can be used by defenders to prevent cyber attacks, but it can also be leveraged by malicious actors to launch more complex and effective attacks.

Recently, a group of chief information security officers in Melbourne discussed the roles of humans and AI in cybersecurity. They emphasized that humans are both the problem and the solution, and that AI drives innovation for both sides in the security war, but cannot replace human creativity.

This group, convened by cybersecurity vendor Bugcrowd, gathered 5,500 security professionals from the industry at the AISA conference. Bugcrowd CEO Dave Gerry highlighted the increasing cost of data breaches, projected to reach $4.35 million according to Ponemon Institute's predictions. Additionally, IDC forecasts that global cybersecurity spending will reach $219 billion by 2023, a 12% increase from last year.

Why are we seeing more threats?

The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) and interconnected devices has brought additional risks to healthcare organizations, making them particularly vulnerable to cyber attacks. Ryan La Roche, Chief Information Security Officer of St John of God, Australia's largest not-for-profit healthcare service provider, stated, "Medical monitoring devices are interconnected for data exchange, which has great benefits for healthcare outcomes, but also introduces risks and makes healthcare organizations potential targets for attacks."

Hackers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, with vulnerabilities being discovered and exploited within hours. Dan Maslin from Monash University's CISO team in Australia explained, "We see zero-day vulnerabilities being discovered and exploited within 24 hours. I believe the situation will only worsen."

He also warned that as organizations collaborate with numerous digital partners, security boundaries become more porous. "No matter how much you encrypt the shell of your organization, you are connected to hundreds or even thousands of third parties. They may become fatal weaknesses for many organizations in the next decade."

How can AI help humans maintain cybersecurity?

Luke Barker, Head of Security Team at telecommunications giant Telstra, commented, "From a detection and response perspective, I think we will make significant progress in leveraging the power of AI to reduce human effort and proactively address threats. I see a shift from just increasing the number of analysts to enhancing engineering capabilities, using the power of AI to go beyond threats."

Gerry stated, "AI will help make the entire industry more efficient, and we will become more productive. However, it will also introduce many new risks. Regardless of how many tools are deployed, how many new solutions, services, and vendors are introduced, it ultimately comes down to humans. We need to ensure that we protect our teams or infrastructure, but we need to do it in a human-centric way."

Gerry cited Gartner's prediction that by 2027, half of enterprise chief information security officers will adopt a human-centric security design approach, considering the impact of human behavior and errors on security.