We can expect the world to change fundamentally over the next five to seven years with the convergence of the Internet and Physical Worlds and the deployment of the Internet of Things (IoT). When everything that can be connected is connected, whole economies and societies will be transformed. Services will become more efficient and data driven, providing new ways for us to interact with the world around us. However, increased security threats and device vulnerabilities, as well as incompatible standards and a lack of interoperable systems, could well undermine the technology’s promise.
This excerpt from the 2017 Internet Society Global Internet Report outlines the possibilities and concerns that come with the growing importance of our increasingly connected world and the vulnerabilities that follow. With the recent focus on hyper-connectivity in workspaces and as individuals cultivate a more robust presence online, cyber-criminals are emboldened in their attempts to hack and cause difficulties in the IoT sphere. As seen in recent hacking incidents like Equifax, and the subsequent KRACK threat on WPA2, the “most secure” encryption protocol in general use today, the era of hyper connectivity faces a gauntlet of challenges.
However, despite these challenges, this era has given birth to an idea that has rapidly moved from the drawing board to actual implementation. The growing popularity of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning is rapidly ushering in a new era of connectivity. With organizations and individuals actively exploring the widespread application of AI to address problems and to create a new experiences, the lines between the physical and the virtual world are blurring.
As we continue to entrust faceless and remote servers with our intimate details and army of computer engineers to keep that data safe, we cannot ignore the fact that as technology evolves, tactics to exploit and access that very data will also evolve. As such, we will require the use of ingenuity to counteract this cyber espionage. This brings us to the critical question: is the adoption of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning the cyber knight against the scourge of cyber criminals? To the uninitiated, Artificial Intelligence is the development of computer systems that work and react to problems similar to how humans would. Machine Learning is the subsequent application of artificial intelligence, which allows machines to adapt to situations without being explicitly programmed to after going through similar experiences. The applicative possibilities of these two concepts to securing the internet grid are vast and hold promise.
As people continue to feed data, the AI can essentially leverage this data to identify patterns and trends, thus training itself to recognize potential threats. This automatically implies that existing weaknesses and potential shortcomings of a security system can be quickly identified and mitigated. However, this at no point states that AI can completely remove an organization’s cyber security personnel. In fact, AI can augment their arsenal as a tool rather than serve as a complete replacement. AI systems require human interaction to train and provide information in order for the AI to identify and target threats. It is the delicate combination of human and digital than can prove to be a winning one. While the AI scours the internet infrastructure searching for potential threats and mitigating them, humans in an organization’s cyber security force can instead devote their time to searching for new and complex security issues, strategizing a solution, and then feeding that into the AI. It is this game of balance that can effectively cease a cyber attack in its track.
For AI, Machine Learning, and existing cyber security frameworks to effectively combat cyber security attacks, the industry must determine that optimal position between machine and human responsibility. Currently, AI cannot work in a vacuum, requiring human interaction to continue to operate. Human specialists will be required to update algorithms and handle exceptions — avenues the AI is not (currently) equipped to handle. Nevertheless, it is safe to say that the era of software in cyberspace effectively to strengthen human effort has now arrived.
Written by Osman Ansari
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