The exponential growth in data and complexity of modern technology environments have outpaced conventional rules-based security tools. Simply relying on lists of known threats and manual analysis no longer suffices. To keep pace, leading cybersecurity platforms are now infusing artificial intelligence and machine learning to enable more automated, proactive defense. These digital guardians are transforming protection.
Scaling Analysis with AI Engines
At the front lines, AI and machine learning alleviate the overwhelming tide of security telemetry flooding SIEMs (security information and event management) and SOC (security operations center) desks. Algorithms perform triage to focus analyst attention on the most pressing threats while handling mundane tasks.
Behavioral analysis models baseline traffic patterns to automatically flag anomalies indicative of threats and compromised systems without relying solely on signature matching, reducing false positives. Intelligent prioritization scores threats based on organization context like impacted assets and severity of attack chain progression, allowing optimizing analyst time on critical alerts.
By offloading the deluge of routine security data tasks to AI, analysts gain time to investigate and respond to the most important threats.
Hunting for Stealthy Adversaries
Sophisticated attackers now operate completely within legitimate protocols and administrator tools to hide their presence. Unlike malware, this “living off the land” tradecraft renders rules-based defenses blind. This is where behavior-based AI detection excels by developing profiles of normal activity to detect subtle anomalies indicative of account compromise, and employing unsupervised neural networks to build models of typical traffic patterns in order to detect outlying flows that align with adversary tradecraft.
Additionally, deception techniques like honeypots safely engage attackers allowing AI to analyze their behavior as they attempt to move laterally. Models learn new techniques. Memory forensics examines system memory using algorithms to detect indicators of attack tools, code modifications and injected scripts missed by file and process scans.
Spotting faint behavioral clues of human adversaries versus automated malware means AI systems provide vital sensors into stealthy threats within the environment.
Proactive Protection
Unlike traditional reactive security, AI enables predicting and preempting threats before they cause damage. Attack path modeling simulates how attackers pivot through systems and laterally move step-by-step based on detected vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, warning of risk paths. Adversarial machine learning varies input data to ML-based detection models and analyzes edge cases most likely to evade current classifiers, enabling proactive model improvement.
Anticipating threats and vulnerabilities yet to manifest means organizations shift left to reduce business risk, rather than solely reacting after incidents occur.
Automating Response Workflows
Once threats are detected, AI and automation orchestrate and accelerate response workflows. Playbooks codify routine response procedures for security analysts to follow when predefined triggers are met, reducing manual steps. Case management assigns incidents to analysts optimally based on factors like experience and current workload using algorithms.
