Artificial intelligence

AI Will Alter How We Design Systems and Protect them

AI will alter how we design systems and protect them from unauthorized access, but what will safeguard humans against AI?

As artificial intelligence (AI) technology continues to advance, there are concerns about how it may impact society and individuals. One of these concerns is the potential for AI to harm humans, intentionally or unintentionally.

Several approaches can be taken to protect humans from AI:

  1. Regulation: Governments and regulatory bodies can create laws and regulations that govern the development and use of AI. These regulations can ensure that AI systems are safe and reliable and that they are designed and used in ways that are ethical and beneficial to society.

  2. Ethical guidelines: AI developers can adopt ethical guidelines and principles that prioritize the safety and well-being of humans. For example, the IEEE Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems has developed a set of principles for AI that emphasize transparency, accountability, and human oversight.

  3. Testing and evaluation: AI systems can be thoroughly tested and evaluated to ensure that they are safe and reliable. This can involve simulations, testing in controlled environments, and real-world testing.

  4. Human oversight: AI systems can be designed to include human oversight and intervention. This can include mechanisms for humans to monitor and control AI systems, as well as safeguards to prevent AI systems from operating outside of their intended parameters.

  5. Education and awareness: Educating the public about AI and its potential impact can help to increase awareness and understanding of the risks and benefits of AI. This can include providing information about the potential risks of AI, as well as ways to protect oneself from AI-related harm.

Ultimately, protecting humans from AI will require a multifaceted approach that involves collaboration between governments, AI developers, and the public. By prioritizing safety and ethical considerations and by implementing measures to ensure the safe and responsible development and use of AI, we can help to mitigate the potential risks and maximize the benefits of this transformative technology.

Artificial intelligence (AI) respond to system threats

Artificial intelligence (AI) can respond to system threats in several ways. Here are a few examples:

  1. Threat detection: AI can be used to detect threats to a system, such as malware or cyberattacks. By analyzing patterns and anomalies in system data, AI can quickly identify potential threats and alert security personnel.

  2. Risk assessment: AI can be used to assess the risk posed by a potential threat. By analyzing data from multiple sources, including security logs and network traffic, AI can determine the severity of a threat and prioritize the response.

  3. Automated response: AI can be used to automatically respond to system threats. For example, AI can be programmed to isolate infected devices or block malicious traffic in real-time.

  4. Incident response: AI can be used to assist with incident response, helping security teams to investigate and remediate security incidents. AI can analyze data from multiple sources to provide insights into the root cause of a security incident, and recommend actions to prevent similar incidents in the future.

  5. Predictive analytics: AI can be used to predict future threats and vulnerabilities to a system. By analyzing historical data and trends, AI can identify potential areas of weakness in a system and recommend actions to prevent future attacks.

In all these cases, AI can help to improve the speed and accuracy of threat response, reducing the risk of damage to the system and minimizing the impact of a security incident. However, it's important to note that AI should not be relied upon as the sole means of threat response, and human oversight and intervention should always be present to ensure that AI is operating as intended and to make critical decisions when necessary.

Databricks: AI Could Become So Intelligent That It Surpasses Human Intelligence

Databricks is a unified analytics platform that helps businesses accelerate time to insights with data engineering, data science, and machine learning. Databricks is at the front and center of machine learning, and its capabilities are vast.

Some of the key capabilities of Databricks include:

  • Data engineering: Databricks makes it easy to ingest, clean, and prepare data for analysis. Databricks also provides a variety of tools for data transformation and data modeling.

  • Data science: Databricks provides a complete environment for data scientists to build, train, and deploy machine learning models. Databricks also provides a variety of tools for data visualization and model evaluation.

  • Machine learning: Databricks provides a variety of machine learning algorithms and frameworks. Databricks also provides a variety of tools for model deployment and monitoring.

In addition to its core capabilities, Databricks also offers a number of additional features, such as:

  • Collaboration: Databricks makes it easy for teams to collaborate on data projects. Databricks provides a variety of tools for sharing data, code, and notebooks.

  • Security: Databricks is built on a secure foundation. Databricks provides a variety of features for data security, such as role-based access control, data encryption, and audit logging.

  • Governance: Databricks provides a variety of features for data governance, such as data lineage tracking, data quality checks, and data policy enforcement.

Databricks is a powerful platform that can help businesses accelerate time to insights with data engineering, data science, and machine learning. If you are looking for a platform to help you with your data projects, Databricks is a great option.

Here are some additional thoughts on the potential dangers of AI, as raised by Ian Hogarth:

  • AI could become so intelligent that it surpasses human intelligence. This could lead to a situation where AI is able to make decisions that are better than humans, but which humans do not understand. This could have a profound impact on society, as humans would no longer be in control of their own destiny.

  • AI could become so powerful that it could pose a threat to humanity. This could happen if AI is used for malicious purposes, such as developing autonomous weapons or creating surveillance systems that are too powerful to be controlled by humans.

  • AI could become so ubiquitous that it could become difficult to distinguish between humans and machines. This could lead to a situation where humans are no longer unique or special.

It is important to be aware of the potential dangers of AI, and to take steps to mitigate these risks. One way to do this is to ensure that AI is developed and used in a responsible manner. This means ensuring that AI is aligned with human values, and that it is used for good rather than for evil.

It is also important to remember that AI is a tool, and like any tool, it can be used for good or for evil. It is up to us to decide how AI is used, and to ensure that it is used for the benefit of humanity.

Cybersecurity Future and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

As businesses struggle to combat increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity attacks, the severity of which is exacerbated by both the vanishing IT perimeters in today’s mobile and IoT era, coupled with an acute shortage of skilled security professionals, IT security teams need both a new approach and powerful new tools to protect data and other high-value assets. Increasingly, they are looking to artificial intelligence (AI) as a key weapon to win the battle against stealthy threats inside their IT infrastructures, according to a new global research study conducted by the Ponemon Institute on behalf of Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company (NYSE:HPE).

The Ponemon Institute study, entitled “Closing the IT Security Gap with Automation & AI in the Era of IoT,” surveyed 4,000 security and IT professionals across the Americas, Europe and Asia to understand what makes security deficiencies so hard to fix, and what types of technologies and processes are needed to stay a step ahead of bad actors within the new threat landscape.

The research revealed that in the quest to protect data and other high-value assets, security systems incorporating machine learning and other AI-based technologies are essential for detecting and stopping attacks that target users and IoT devices. The majority of respondents agree that security products with AI functionality will help to:

  • Reduce false alerts (68 percent)

  • Increase their team’s effectiveness (63 percent)

  • Provide greater investigation efficiencies (60 percent)

  • Advance their ability to more quickly discover and respond to stealthy attacks that have evaded perimeter defense systems (56 percent)

Twenty-five percent of respondents said they currently use some form of an AI-based security solution, with another 26 percent stating they plan on deploying these types of products within the next 12 months.

Current Security Tools are not Enough

“Despite massive investments in cybersecurity programs, our research found most businesses are still unable to stop advanced, targeted attacks – with 45 percent believing they are not realizing the full value of their defense arsenal, which ranges from 10 to 75 security solutions,” said Larry Ponemon, chairman, Ponemon Institute. “The situation has become a ‘perfect storm,’ with nearly half of respondents saying it’s very difficult to protect complex and dynamically changing attack surfaces, especially given the current lack of security staff with the necessary skills and expertise to battle today’s persistent, sophisticated, highly trained, and well-financed attackers. Against this backdrop, AI-based security tools, which can automate tasks and free up IT personnel to manage other aspects of a security program, were viewed as critical for helping businesses keep up with increasing threat levels.”

IoT and Cloud Adds Significant Risk

Ponemon researchers found that the majority of IT security teams believe that a key gap in their company’s overall security strategy is their inability to identify attacks that use IoT devices as the point of entry. In fact, more than three-quarters of respondents believe their IoT devices are not secure, with 60 percent stating even simple IoT devices pose a threat. Two-thirds of respondents admitted they have little or no ability to protect their “things” from attacks. Continuous monitoring of network traffic, closed-loop detection and response systems, and detecting behavioral anomalies among peer groups of IoT devices, were cited as the most effective approaches to better protect their environments.

Even the ownership model for IoT security presents potential risk. When asked who inside their organization was responsible for IoT security, responses ranged from the CIO, CISO, CTO, and line-of-business leaders, with no majority consensus. Only 33 percent identified the CIO, with no other executive or functional group achieving response totals above 20 percent. Surprisingly, “No Function” was the third-highest answer (15 percent).

Survey results also highlighted the importance of visibility and the ability to define which resources that people and IoT devices can access, with 63 percent of respondents stating network access control is an important element of their company’s overall security strategy and critical for reducing the reach of inside exploits. Also cited as important was having detailed information about applications (71 percent), endpoints (69 percent), cloud (64 percent), and networks (63 percent), with more than half saying they currently deploy network access control solutions for enabling visibility and control across both wired and wireless networks.

Additionally, more than half of respondents said it’s hard to protect expanding and blurring IT perimeters resulting from requirements to concurrently support IoT, BYOD, mobile, and cloud initiatives (55%).

“Partnering with the Ponemon Institute helps us to improve customer experiences by better understanding security teams’ challenges, and then arming them with advanced solutions that enable quick identification and responses to an ever-changing threat landscape,” said Larry Lunetta, vice president of security solutions marketing for Aruba. “The insight gained from this study enables us to continually improve our ability to provide an enterprise wired and wireless network security framework with an integrated and more comprehensive approach for gaining back visibility and control.”