The future of AI in security

I have four brothers. When I was young, it always seemed that we would pair up and share a room together. It was usually my older brother and me, and then the two younger brothers together. When we got in trouble, as kids will, we were usually scolded and spent some time in our room while the rest of the family engaged in other activities. As a boy, sitting in forced seclusion, I often imagined that I could hear my brothers laughing because this was the time that Mom or Dad decided to bring out ice cream or a new movie or game to play, while I was unable to participate.  

This was rarely the case; however, it added to my frustration of being set apart from the activities happening outside my room. When my brother would come in to get something or drop a snide comment, I would often become even angrier and more sullen. I voiced my frustration to my parents that while I was on restriction, he should not be able to come and go as he pleased. My heartfelt angst did not elicit the response I hoped for. I remember my father looking at me and saying, “Well, you don’t have a lock on the door, so anyone can come and go if they want.”   

“Are you telling me that if I put a lock on the door, I could keep him out?” I asked. 

“Sure, you could,” my father responded. “You would control who has access to your room.” 

It had never crossed my mind that I could prevent my brother from entering our shared room. Of course, we didn’t discuss the plausibility of my affording a lock or the consequences of attempting to control access within my father’s house, but that’s another story.  

And so, this was my introduction to the possibilities of security. Now, just like a locked door would be a basic security function for access to my shared room, there are many “doors” for accessing cybersecurity “rooms” that can be locked and controlled. 

As technology continues to evolve at a breakneck pace, the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in various sectors becomes increasingly significant. One area where AI is making a profound impact is in cybersecurity. The future of AI promises to revolutionize how we protect our digital and physical worlds, making security more robust, efficient, and adaptive. 

In addition to threat detection, AI is transforming incident response. Traditional incident response is often labor-intensive, requiring security teams to manually investigate and resolve incidents. AI can automate many aspects of this process, rapidly identifying the root cause of a threat and taking corrective actions. This not only speeds response times but also frees security professionals to focus on more strategic tasks.