In a 2017 Deloitte survey, only 42% of respondents considered their institutions to be extremely or very effective at managing cybersecurity risk. The pandemic has certainly done nothing to alleviate these concerns. Despite increased IT security investments companies made in 2020 to deal with distributed IT and work-from-home challenges, nearly 80% of senior IT workers and IT security leaders believe their organizations lack sufficient defenses against cyberattacks, according to IDG. Unfortunately, the cybersecurity landscape is poised to become more treacherous with the emergence of AI-powered cyberattacks, which could enable cybercriminals to fly under the radar of conventional, rules-based detection tools. For example, when AI is thrown into the mix, "fake email" could become nearly indistinguishable from trusted contact messages.

AI is revolutionizing many industries across the globe like manufacturing, retail, pharmaceutical, and IT, but it is also reinventing cyberattacks. Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the remote work culture and rapid cloud computing have encouraged hackers to come up with innovative solutions to break into online networks. These cyberattacks pose a severe risk to worldwide security. According to a report by MIT Technology Review Insights, in association with Darktrace, an AI cybersecurity company, "Offensive AI risks and developments in the cyberthreat landscape are redefining enterprise security as humans already struggle to keep pace with advanced attacks." Because cyberattacks have become more sophisticated with time, professionals are researching ways to use AI to combat these threats.

Over three decades ago, the Morris Worm infected an estimated 10% of the 60,000 computers that were online in 1988. It was the personal malware project of a Harvard graduate named Robert Tappan Morris, that was widely deemed to be the world's first cyber-attack. Fast forward to today, and cyberattacks now stand among natural disasters and climate change in the World Economic Forum's annual list of global society's gravest threats. In fact, with machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) coming into the picture, cybersecurity is becoming more effective and powerful but there is another side of the coin too. Breaking into computer systems has become a child's play using AI and ML.

With damage related to cybercrime projected to hit $6 trillion annually by 2021, enterprises are putting more emphasis than ever on securing their digital and organizational assets. While rudimentary machine learning has played a role in cyber threats for some years, today there's talk of the looming threat of malicious AI: AI-powered cyber-attacks capable of causing massive damage worldwide without the involvement of human operators. To better understand the threats and opportunities presented by AI in the cyber security space, we went to the AI Summit San Francisco to catch up with Justin Fier, director of cyber intelligence and analytics at Darktrace – the company putting AI to work on cyber defense. Justin's background is in the US intelligence community, and today works with Darktrace's global customers on threat analysis, defensive cyber operations, IoT security, and machine learning. What are the key takeaways from your AI Summit keynote?

"Critical component" Some 91 percent of cybersecurity professionals are worried that next-generation cyberattacks will be based around AI, a study from Webroot found. As TechRepublic reports, most of the experts surveyed said they will defend against AI-based attacks using more AI. Almost all the businesses (99%) intending to use AI are optimistic it will improve their cybersecurity responses. The technology is being used in three key ways to augment existing anti-malware solutions. Companies in the U.S. are leading the trend towards defensive AI solutions, with 95 percent agreeing it's a "critical component" in a modern cybersecurity strategy.

Despite spending more money on security than ever, organisations struggling with a widespread cybersecurity skills gap are often told how technologies like big data, analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence can aid them in protecting their data or critical infrastructure from attackers. Organisations ranging from startups to established large corporations are investing in the building of AI systems to bolster defences by analysing vast amounts of data and helping cybersecurity professionals identify far more threats than would be possible if they were left to do it manually. But the same technologies that improve corporate defences could also be used to attack them. It's the simplest method of cyberattack available -- and there are schemes on the dark web which put all the tools required to go phishing into anyone's hands. It's simply a case of taking an email address, scraping some publicly available personal data to make the phishing email seem convincing, then sending it to the victim and waiting for them to bite.