It's no secret that human errors have tripped up SMBs and corporations alike; leading to gaping vulnerabilities and cybersecurity breaches. Even the most in-tune security professionals can miss a proverbial red flag.

Thankfully, cyber coverage insurance can shelter businesses from the financial damages of a cyberattack. Still, it's admittedly better to prevent these incidents from happening in the first place. Which is why some organizations are investing in artificial intelligence to advance their cyber defenses.

This begs the question, are computers really better at anticipating digital threats? Is there any danger machine learning poses to the workplace? CyberPolicy takes a closer look.

The Future Starts Now
AI-based cybersecurity might seem like something out of RoboCop, but in reality machine learning is much more capable of detecting a hacker's automated attacks than a team of humans. For example, let's say a user is trying to log into their account on your website. They can't remember their password and take a few tries to gain access. Was this an innocent mistake, an injection of malicious code or part of a brute force attack? You don't want to wait around to find out.

AI can prevent all sorts of attacks including SQL injection, malware scams, denial-of-service attacks, CAPTCHA defeat, vulnerability scanning and more. Even more impressive is that AI can learn the difference between the behaviors of legitimate users and those of hackers or bots.

Sanjay Aurora, managing director for Asia Pacific at Darktrace explains machine learning in terms of the human immune system. "How have human beings, for millions of years, thrived and survived? (It) is because of our immune system. Almost every day, we're hit by unknown unknowns, which is the way organizations are also hit ... in terms of viruses and malware."

Of course, this isn't to say that machine learning will eliminate the need for human intervention. For instance, AI2, a machine learning system developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, is designed to flag a number of abnormalities (some legitimate threats, some false alarms) which are then differentiated by a human analyst. With each iteration, AI2 improves its results.

This symbiotic relationship matches the best of both worlds: the speed and tireless effort of AI with the expertise and understanding of human beings.

This could help businesses thwart attackers in real time, which is a bigger deal than you might imagine. According to FireEye, organizations took an average of 99 days to realize they had been breached. Eliminating the lag between attack and discovery could save businesses thousands of dollars and prevent proprietary information from being leaked on the dark web.

So, are there any dangers to using AI in the workplace? While there's no shortage of alarmist sci-fi flicks about the coming robot rebellion, AI is safe to use in the workplace. However, it's not hard to imagine that hackers will continue the digital arms race in hopes of exploiting AI for their own purposes.

As cybersecurity experts anticipate the attacks of tomorrow, your business should employ the safe nets of today, including cyber insurance coverage from CyberPolicy. Protect your organization from financial ruin. Get your free quote today!