AI is Becoming Increasingly Important to Cybersecurity
As the App Security Project noted late in 2023, cybersecurity professionals expect security systems to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly in 2024. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Amazon.com chief security officer Stephen Schmidt outlined how his company is effecting this transition. In Schmidt’s estimation, “generative AI has the potential to become an indispensable tool in the hands of security engineers.”
Schmidt says Amazon has implemented AI not to replace human security engineers, but to direct their work. Amid ongoing worries that AI will “kill jobs,” this is notable. “There are probably people out there who will tell you that they’ve got a generative AI solution which replaces security engineers,” Schmidt says. “I’ve never seen one that actually has the level of accuracy required.”
AI will raise security officers’ efficiency and productivity, allowing the industry’s finite supply of professionals to optimize their finite energies. “AI amplifies human abilities, doesn’t replace them,” Schmidt says.
Meanwhile, federal authorities say that AI has increasing utility for both security professionals and hackers. According to National Security Agency cybersecurity director Rob Joyce, AI-enabled tools can previously illusive breaches — breaches that hackers can camouflage better than ever before using offensive AI tools.
As technology evolves, and the cybersecurity landscape becomes increasingly sophisticated, politicians should avoid weakening individuals’ and security officers’ abilities to fend off hackers. It is self-evident that cybercriminals will not decline to take full advantage of the latest technology simply because Congress has weakened the private sector’s cybersecurity defenses to advance some other policy aim – e.g., antitrust.
Entering 2024, robust cybersecurity must become a constant consideration for all policy makers.
Published on February 16, 2024