How AI-Driven Cyber Security Can Offer Enterprises Strong Defence against Evolving Attacks and Threats

When it comes to cybersecurity, breaches are inevitable. Why? Because enterprise data is no longer contained within well-defined perimeters. Business operations are conducted across multiple channels, environments, and devices, giving rise to a growing list of vulnerabilities. The scale and complexity of threatsare also growing with each passing day; the smallest gaps in enterprise security can be exploited to compromise entire networks and everything connected to them. In such a fast-evolving threat landscape, firewalls and antivirus software alone can no longer keep organisations safe.

Why enterprises need to up their game with AI-Driven managed security services

Consider the enterprise IT environment today. The adoption of connected devices and cloud technologies has enhanced productivity and efficiency. It has also given threat actors multiple points of entry, putting enterprises at a greater risk of breaches and data thefts. To counter this, security teams need to constantly monitor data generated across the IT stack.

However, the sheer volume of data generated daily by modern organisations makes it impossible for human experts to conduct in-depth threat analysis on their own. Going through security logs and incident reports manually is an exhaustive process, which considerably delays the detection of an attack. It is not uncommon for threats to remain undetected for weeks within enterprise networks, even as the mean time to respond (MTTR) to an ongoing breach extends to several days.

The fact that cybercriminals continuously change their tactics further complicates enterprise cyber defence. The use of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence allows threat actors to launch highly-customised attacks at scale to further amplify the impact of their attack campaigns. Signature- or rule-based models of threat detection and prevention followed by traditional security tools are not equipped to tackle such sophistication.

CISOs need to understand that using conventional cybersecurity measures to tackle such evolved threats is similar to bringing a knife to a gunfight. They need to implement security solutions which are agile, effective, and swift. This is exactly where cutting-edge cybersecurity offerings such as Managed Detection and Response (MDR) step into the picture. Equipped with advanced security analytics, AI, and machine learning capabilities, MDR can elevate enterprise security operations to a whole new level.

AI-led MDR: The security solution enterprises need

For one thing, such solutions use AI’s massive computational power to analyse all enterprise data in real-time. With the most relevant alerts triaged for the security team to further examine, false positives are separated from actual security incidents with unparalleled speed and precision. This helps in bringing the average dwell time and MTTR down from weeks and days to barely minutes and hours. Security teams are also provided with highly contextual insights during an ongoing breach, enabling them to make more accurate and data-driven decisions. Suchswiftand precise security response helps in containing the attack to a localised area during threat mitigation, thus minimising the risk of a major breach.

AI-Driven MDR services, such as those offered by Paladion, also help enterprises in strengthening their security profiles through proactive threat hunting. These solutions constantly collate threat data and trends from across the globe, before applying it to the specific context of the business. The insights so generated enable security teams to be ready for potential attacks and shore up their defences well in advance, thus ensuring that the organisation’sdata and networks remain secure and safe. Post-event forensics after breach mitigation also helps security experts to understand the exact attack path and plug exploited vulnerabilities to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

In today’s connected era, cybersecurity can no longer be an afterthought; it has to become an integral part of the long-term enterprise growth strategy. Preventing security breaches from ever occurring is an exercise in futility. The best approach is to detect, contain, and mitigate them as soon as possible to prevent a major security incident. With the stakes constantly increasing, enterprises– particularly CISOs – need to re-evaluate their cybersecurity focus. It is critical for them to understand the value that AI-Driven MDR services can add to their business operations. That, more than anything, is the need of the hour.

Amit Tewary
Head- North India at Paladion Networks