Why Companies Should Use AI to Defend Against AI-Powered Cyber Attacks

This year, more and more targeted cyberattacks have successfully infiltrated private systems, leaving businesses open to serious threats. Companies need to create proactive response plans — as it’s clear that attacks are now more robust and difficult to detect.

The world is expected to spend $8 trillion on security breaches by the end of 2023, an extreme financial burden felt by organizations of all sizes. This recent surge is aligned with the rise of artificial intelligence technology.

The democratization of AI tools makes the technology more accessible to everyone — including cybercriminals. AI can serve as a core component of cyber threats and security measures to stop them.  

AI-powered threats highlight the urgency for more substantial investments in cybersecurity and AI-driven solutions.

Cybersecurity and AI Experience Rapid Growth, AI Outpaces All

Online interest in cybersecurity and AI development experts has significantly increased in 2023. While swells exist in both areas, it’s clear that organizations have their eyes fixed primarily on AI innovation over protecting their businesses from cyber attacks.

Traffic to cybersecurity and AI development pages on Clutch has grown significantly since the start of 2023. Cybersecurity traffic surged 50% year over year (YoY), while the global AI development page skyrocketed to 237% YoY growth over the same period.

AI is undeniably the dominant technology in the current landscape. The disparity between AI and cybersecurity growth may be indicative of overlooking security for the sake of innovation in recent months.

While the growth of AI presents opportunities for technological advancements, it also accentuates the vulnerability to AI-driven cyberattacks, making cybersecurity measures all the more important for company investment. This is particularly the case given the financial ramifications of breaches as well as organizational unpreparedness to respond to attacks effectively.

AI-Powered Cybersecurity Attacks Challenge Organizations of All Sizes

While AI has dominated business news, cybersecurity has also made frequent headlines this year.

As AI-driven attacks have grown in numbers, high-profile breaches and ransomware attacks have disrupted operations across both public and private organizations. For many, this is a wake-up call to cyber criminals' increasing sophistication and persistence.

While cyberattacks become increasingly more effective, many businesses remain unprepared to handle threats. Companies frequently point to a growing skills gap for high-level in-house cybersecurity positions and limited resources. Shortages of cyber professionals leave countless companies exposed to vulnerabilities.

Companies Must Leverage AI to Enhance Cybersecurity

Given limited cybersecurity assets and resources across the board, businesses need solutions to find, validate, and react to threats as quickly as possible.

In the face of cyber attackers relying on AI to breach lines of security, companies should feel empowered to use AI to stop them. Consider it fighting fire with fire.

AI is available and mature enough to scale existing organizational security systems, and it can detect attacks powered by AI.

In short, AI can help companies do more to protect their data with fewer full-time professionals.

AI tools succeed in scaling processes with their analytical speed. Within seconds, a tool can pull trends and associated anomalies from large data sets with shocking accuracy.

Using tools like this to augment processes significantly reduces the time and human resources companies need to spend on data protection.

With these capabilities, AI solutions can help with:

• Threat detection
• Incident response 
• Vulnerability and risk management
• Predictive analysis

Sergey Solonenko, founder of Algocentric Digital Consultancy, asserts that cybersecurity in an AI world is more important than ever.

“Ensuring robust cybersecurity is non-negotiable, involving stringent protocols, compliance with data protection regulations, and continuous updates to safeguard against emerging threats.” — Sergey Solonenko

The convergence of AI and cybersecurity has thus far been proposed as a defensive strategies, but it shouldn’t be limited to that. Companies can couple these disruptive technologies to enhance overall resilience.

AI can be employed to bolster business strategies, ensuring that security is not merely a reactive measure but an integral part of an organization's core objectives.

Artificial Intelligence Should Be Part of Cybersecurity Measures

The world is witnessing a total AI revolution that will change how businesses operate and approach challenges.

The remarkable growth in both cybersecurity and AI signifies the need for enhanced security measures and the utilization of AI as a powerful defense against AI-driven attacks.

Companies should embrace AI-driven cybersecurity solutions to make AI function optimally for them.