By Nuno Cândido, IT Operations, Cloud & Security Associate Director at Noesis
The current context poses a massive challenge for IT departments. It has been an impulse for changing, not only in mentality but also in prioritization and investment, when it comes to Cybersecurity. Cybersecurity must be a central theme in the IT strategy of any organization, regardless of its profile, sector of activity, or size.
The growing sophistication of cybercriminals, the exponential increase in their attacks, with higher complexity and diversity, and the evolution of attack techniques, are a reality.
Machine-to-machine (M2M) attacks, using artificial intelligence, silent, highly personalized attacks, phishing attacks, among others, pose new security challenges that traditional approaches are unable to address.
Some of these attacks, made public, represented millions of euros in losses for the organizations, in addition to reputational damage. It is, therefore, fundamental that organizations re-focus on their Security Architecture. It is urgent to protect the information, infrastructure, and privacy of organizations and all their stakeholders - employees, customers, and partners.
In this sense, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the key 'pieces' in the security architecture of organizations and an essential investment to provide IT with the ability to detect possible threats and act on them. With AI at the service of Cybersecurity, it is possible to take much of the analysis effort away from human resources, allowing organizations to protect themselves and prevent attacks more efficiently.
When malicious attacks are increasingly sophisticated, creative, and recurrent, using AI tools, enterprise systems must rise to the challenge. And there is no better way than through AI algorithms and Machine Learning. It becomes necessary that organizations invest in more evolved security solutions, advanced monitoring, observability, and automation, more efficient in terms of threat detection and resolution and cancellation.
Some of these attacks, made public, represented millions of euros in losses for the organizations, in addition to reputational damage. It is, therefore, fundamental that organizations re-focus on their Security Architecture. It is urgent to protect the information, infrastructure, and privacy of organizations and all their stakeholders - employees, customers, and partners.
In this sense, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the key 'pieces' in the security architecture of organizations and an essential investment to provide IT with the ability to detect possible threats and act on them. With AI at the service of Cybersecurity, it is possible to take much of the analysis effort away from human resources, allowing organizations to protect themselves and prevent attacks more efficiently.
When malicious attacks are increasingly sophisticated, creative, and recurrent, using AI tools, enterprise systems must rise to the challenge. And there is no better way than through AI algorithms and Machine Learning. It becomes necessary that organizations invest in more evolved security solutions, advanced monitoring, observability, and automation, more efficient in terms of threat detection and resolution and cancellation.
Looking at the indicators of the Global Risks Report 2022, we can see that technological risks are critical threats in the short and medium-term, where factors such as digital inequality and cybersecurity failures have increased exponentially. By 2020 the numbers of malware and ransomware attacks have increased by 358% and 435%, respectively. These are very significant numbers that reinforce the criticality of this issue and the imperative need to adopt new security strategies.
The report also predicts that attacks on large and strategically important systems will have physical consequences throughout society. Real risks such as misinformation, fraud, and lack of digital security - will also affect the public's trust in digital systems.
In conclusion, Cybersecurity must become a cornerstone to organizations. As mentioned in the Global Risks Report 2022: "with cyber threats growing faster than our ability to eradicate them permanently, it becomes clear that neither resilience nor governance is possible without credible and sophisticated cyber risk management plans."
The report also predicts that attacks on large and strategically important systems will have physical consequences throughout society. Real risks such as misinformation, fraud, and lack of digital security - will also affect the public's trust in digital systems.
In conclusion, Cybersecurity must become a cornerstone to organizations. As mentioned in the Global Risks Report 2022: "with cyber threats growing faster than our ability to eradicate them permanently, it becomes clear that neither resilience nor governance is possible without credible and sophisticated cyber risk management plans."
Published (in Portuguese) in IT Security
