Gauging the risk of a cyber attack before it happens is difficult. Significant attacks, like the Solar Winds attack from a few years ago, occur over a period of months and have far reaching implications. Successful hacks may be happening right now and we will only hear about them at their discovery in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The uptick in geopolitical tensions raises the risk of significant attacks. Russia, Iran and China share a common thread of engaging in offensive cyber activities. Chief information security officers recognise they cannot slack on cyber defences. It\u2019s also true that there are many actors who would love to disrupt the 2024 U.S. presidential election. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cybersecurity has been consistently near the top of the spending plans for technology budgets1<\/sup>. It is basically cybersecurity and then Artificial Intelligence (AI) taking up all IT budgets. Some of the news flow from recent earnings reports: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cybersecurity connects back to the AI story. AI without appropriate attention to security can be a bit of a disaster, so we are hoping that companies are researching if or how they will use AI in parallel with how they will secure AI. ChatGPT awakened the world to the promise and possibility of AI, and it became a requirement to talk about one\u2019s AI strategy across earnings calls in 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cybersecurity also lends itself to AI since there are many millions of attacks every day. The scale of the issue and limited amount of cybersecurity professionals creates a synergy where many AI companies are using AI and machine learning to provide better security solutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you knew a business had no cybersecurity strategy, would you work with it? We have yet to find anyone answering \u2018yes\u2019 to this question. The necessity of cybersecurity is clear, globally. The question when investing is more about which companies may be positioned to capture the market share and demand for these services, as well as whether it becomes acceptable to outsource cybersecurity to the major cloud infrastructure providers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Whatever the ultimate strategy, we simply note that every new technology requires thought to be applied in how to secure it because the hackers never rest and are always seeking vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Artificial intelligence: a possible cybersecurity catalyst?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Conclusion: a mandatory megatrend<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n