We're only a few months into 2017 and cyber attacks seem to be hitting the headlines even more regularly than last year. In the same week, it was announced that cyber breaches have cost UK companies £42m since 2013. The week before that, it was revealed that Chinese hackers had been carrying out sustained cyber attacks for three years across the globe. As a result of this boom in cyber crime, startups and companies across the world are harnessing new ways to handle the sophisticated attacks and spending is thought to be around $106.1bn in 2017, according to research by IDC. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are just two types of technology that are fighting cyber breaches on the front line.

Artificial intelligence has always figured in New Year technology predictions. However, the notable difference this time is the sheer domination of AI in every segment of consumer life and business. In the coming months, we can expect the technology to get closer to our daily lives, to the extent of even blurring the human-machine boundaries. Ericsson recently released its technology trends report which says consumers expect body language, facial expression and intonation to augment voice and touch during their interaction with devices. Over half the current users of intelligent voice assistants believe devices will increasingly be perceived as fellow human beings, says the report.

One of the most common topics in the tech world today is artificial intelligence. As the technology improves and the applications for that technology increase, we're beginning to have ethical debates and conversations about ways that things could backfire. While I think we can all agree the end game is the mass extinction of the human race when the AIs decide the only surefire way to protect our data is to eradicate humanity, for now, let's talk about the ways Artificial Intelligence is changing security and how it looks to shape the future. Perhaps the most obvious way AI improves cyber security is just in terms of bandwidth. Whereas a human being could never process the amount of data necessary, fast enough, to keep a network completely safe, AI can.

We're only a few months into 2017 and cyber attacks seem to be hitting the headlines even more regularly than last year. In the same week, it was announced that cyber breaches have cost UK companies £42m since 2013. The week before that, it was revealed that Chinese hackers had been carrying out sustained cyber attacks for three years across the globe. As a result of this boom in cyber crime, startups and companies across the world are harnessing new ways to handle the sophisticated attacks and spending is thought to be around $106.1bn in 2017, according to research by IDC. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are just two types of technology that are fighting cyber breaches on the front line.

Called "Deep learning" in the industry, artificial intelligence can be used to create profiles of its users and signal alerts when deviations occur. Security professionals are not saying that human intervention is no longer necessary. While machines can read and analyze data, humans should still intervene to interpret the data to determine if there is indeed an existential threat to the network. In the case of a potential breach, AI can shut systems down preventing malware from getting deep into the network and raise security alerts to the professionals for further investigation. It creates the opportunity for organizations to fix problems before they become too expensive or widespread. Global Data Sentinel uses AI to detect suspicious behavior automatically, based on its ability to learn from previous user behavior.