Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 102 | Page 57

CASE STUDY
Heavy workloads and a significant talent gap also leave cybersecurity teams in a double bind . Analysts can be locked down in repetitive tasks that do little to help these professionals learn new skills to deepen their experience and value to their organisations . Meanwhile , budget cuts , hiring freezes and an insufficient number of developing professionals in educational pipelines have perpetuated the talent gap , even as the gross size of the cybersecurity workforce expands .
One study found a year-over-year increase of 8.7 % in the number of cybersecurity professionals , yet the gap between worker demand and availability grew faster ( 12.6 %). The talent shortage and overwork of SOC teams are ongoing chronic problems that lead to inefficient use of resources , critical gaps in enterprise security and analysts lacking time and tools to enhance skills and develop new capabilities .
Even for organisations that enjoy sufficient resources and cybersecurity talent , the volume and complexity of the datasets created by expanding networks , new endpoints and increasingly complex supply chains and working environments has outstripped the analytic capabilities of humans . To keep pace with the developments in a digital marketplace , security teams , and IT teams in general , must harness the power of AI to confront this challenge .
The rapidly developing capabilities of adversaries makes the need for AI assistance even more urgent . Like a conventional military arms race , cyberattackers and defenders have the capability to make use of an extremely powerful technology . It is certain that attackers , just as they have done since the coming of the Internet , will make use of any tool that helps them achieve their objectives . Increasingly , those tools will incorporate the power of AI and Machine Learning . Defenders must anticipate this and fight fire with fire .
How can organisations capitalise on the AI competitive advantage ?
Why are cybersecurity teams turning to AI for help ?
To capitalise on the AI advantage , organisations need to reconsider some fundamentals of the cybersecurity
The use of AI in cybersecurity has expanded due to several factors – the proliferation of devices , remote connections , cloud deployments and complex supply chains that have increased the attack surface of most organisations . The data generated by this expanded surface in turn leaves Security Operations Centres ( SOC ) struggling to monitor and prioritise more alerts and feeds , which compounds the threat of missed alerts and undetected presence of attackers that may remain undetected in key systems .

HEAVY WORKLOADS

AND A SIGNIFICANT TALENT GAP ALSO LEAVE CYBERSECURITY TEAMS IN

A DOUBLE BIND .

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