What Is AI’s Role In Reinforcing Cyber Defenses?

MixMode’s State of AI in Cybersecurity Report 2024 reveals how AI is transforming the cybersecurity landscape and the challenges and opportunities it presents for organizations.

Organizations are still feeling the effects of the cybersecurity skills shortage, yet only 50% use artificial intelligence (AI) to address the problem. This is among the findings of MixMode’s inaugural State of AI in Cybersecurity Report 2024.

The report is based on a survey conducted by the Ponemon Institute of U.S. cybersecurity professionals. It provides insights into how organizations leverage AI to enhance their security posture and effectively detect and respond to cyberattacks. The report also highlights the current and future trends, challenges, and best practices of AI adoption in cybersecurity.

AI in Cybersecurity — ^{(PRNewsfoto/MixMode, Inc.)}

Some key findings of the report include:

53 percent of organizations are at the early stages of AI adoption, while only 18 percent are at the advanced stages.
45 percent of organizations experienced one or more cyberattacks in the past year.
70 percent of respondents say AI is highly effective in detecting previously undetectable threats, yet 67% use AI mainly to create rules based on known patterns and indicators of cyber threats.

“AI is a game-changer for cybersecurity, as it can automate and augment the detection and response capabilities of security teams, as well as reduce the noise and complexity of security operations,” said John Keister, CEO of MixMode. “However, AI also poses new challenges and risks, such as the threat of AI being used for adversarial attacks and the need for specialized operator skills.

“MixMode understands the complexity of AI and delivers automated capabilities to revolutionize the cybersecurity landscape through our patented self-learning algorithm that can detect threats and anomalies in real-time at high speed and scale,” Keister continued. “This helps enterprises rapidly recognize new malware and insider risks to help strained security teams automate mundane tasks and focus on higher-level defenses.”

The report also offers recommendations and best practices, such as:

Aligning AI initiatives with business goals and security strategies.
Investing in training and upskilling security personnel on AI tools and technologies.
Evaluating and selecting AI vendors based on their capabilities, performance, and trustworthiness.
Implementing a robust governance framework and ethical principles for AI use and oversight.
Collaborating and sharing intelligence with other organizations and stakeholders.

“We believe this study on AI is unique because it reveals both its value in strengthening the cybersecurity posture of organizations and the challenges when leveraging the technology to detect and respond to cyberattacks”, said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder, Ponemon Institute. “It is our hope that the findings will help organizations that are in the process of adopting AI minimize the barriers to deployment and more quickly achieve the benefits.”

Click here to download the report.