Censornet hosts webinar on exposing the hype around AI in Cyber Security

Richard Walters, CTO of Censornet, will host a webinar session separating fact from fiction when it comes to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cyber Security on Thursday 3rd October. Businesses require enhanced digital capabilities to bolster their cyber defences in order to cope with the spread of cyber attacks which can compromise critical operations. With Artificial Intelligence being widely heralded as ‘the next big thing’ in cyber security, Richard will be looking behind the scenes at the common misconceptions around this technology.

Earlier this year, Censornet surveyed over 300 UK cyber security professionals. Despite high profile headlines about breaches and data leaks, the survey found that 57% of businesses have suffered from alert overload over the past 12 months and security professionals are not being helped enough by their security solutions. The potential of artificial intelligence is compelling, enticing security managers with the promise of automated, self-learning solutions to tackle the strain on resources and skill shortages.

However, the term AI has been used by some organisations as siren call, lulling customers into false impression of these solutions. Recent research found that 40 percent of European “AI startups” actually didn’t use AI in a way that is “material” to their business. Some security providers are genuinely paving the way with AI-based services, but others are still using traditional approaches, bolstered by non-material AI to appear more advanced than they are. This is increasingly worrying when you consider that companies are trusting AI-touting businesses with responsibilities as critical as security.

During the webinar, Richard will unpack the truths and falsehoods surrounding the technology, as well as the different sub-fields of AI and their applications to help you discover the benefits AI can bring to your company’s cyber security strategies and how you can improve your company’s cyber security posture.

Richard Walters CTO of Censornet comments: “CISOs and security managers are being kept awake at night by the prospect of facing ever evolving and ubiquitous threats, with many believing they will not be able to respond without the use of AI. When we speak of AI, we need to consider that it is quite a broad term and can be achieved through a number of techniques, such as rules-based engines, evolutionary algorithms, and Bayesian statistics. However, most people confuse and conflate AI with its most well-known subfield, machine learning.”

According to Capgemini’s Reinventing Cybersecurity with Artificial Intelligence report, although the majority of executives say they know what they want to achieve from AI in cyber-security, just over half (54%) have identified the data sets required to operationalise AI algorithms.

Richard continues: “A word to the wise, it is important to not simply join the bandwagon and expect AI to be the silver bullet. For AI to become a key weapon in thwarting ever evolving cyber attacks, there needs to be proper due diligence. Its needs to be an informed decision which is underpinned by the knowledge of how to scale AI from proof of concept to full-scale deployment.”

“Artificial Intelligence can either be the Achilles Heel to your company’s defence strategy or the thread that holds it together. Therefore, the technologies need to work in partnership with cyber professionals to become the bedrock of defence strategies in the future. Organisation will be setting themselves up for a fall if they do not build a robust and comprehensive roadmap for implementing AI in cyber security.”