Edgio shares how AI will impact cybersecurity
Edgio provides solutions to connect its clients’ valuable digital content (movies, news, games, software, live events, websites) to their customers with speed, security, and an exceptional customer experience.
The company was established in 2022 when Limelight, the 20-year provider of content delivery services to stream digital content over the internet, acquired Edgecast, a leading CDN and digital media company.
Supported by a global edge delivery network featuring over 300 Points of Presence (PoPs) worldwide, 7,000+ ISP interconnections, and a vast 275+ Tbps global capacity, Edgio ensures swift and secure digital content delivery. Companies can depend on Edgio to accelerate content delivery, enhance security, and ultimately boost overall revenue and business value.
As the Vice President of Security Services, Tom Gorup is responsible for overseeing Edgio's global security operations, ensuring the highest standards of quality, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. He has over 15 years of experience in managing security operations, from co-founding and running a successful MDR startup to directing a large-scale SOC at a leading cloud security provider.
When it comes to cybersecurity threats, we’re in a period of rapid change and continued growth. From ransomware becoming ever more prevalent to Generative AI and ChatGPT bursting on the scene breaking down barriers to adoption and making artificial intelligence a commonplace in both offensive and defensive cyber operations.
The current financial squeeze on consumers and more accessible tools to commit fraud create a lethal combination — and with the average cost of a data breach in the UK being £3.3 million, businesses need to ensure cybersecurity remains a high priority during these trying times.
Gorup shares his expert insight with Cyber Digital about how AI will impact cybersecurity.
How will AI bridge the cyber skills gap?
One of the greatest challenges organisations face is the skills gap. This has been growing for a decade and is especially prevalent in cybersecurity. 50% of all UK businesses have a basic cybersecurity skills gap and there is an estimated shortfall of 11,200 people to meet the demand of the cyber workforce.
AI could offer a solution by lowering the barrier of entry for cybersecurity roles. Once we build more trust in GenAI in the cyber community, this tech can help to overcome the breadth and complexity of cybersecurity tools and open roles up to a wider talent pool. CISOs and security leaders can seek out individuals who are curious and good communicators rather than seeking out individuals with specific technical expertise. For example, being able to ask AI if something is normal for the environment and what actions they should take in each scenario nearly eliminates the technical nuances of security tools while also allowing businesses to train AI on internal procedures.
How are attackers using AI to pick out vulnerabilities?
While AI will lower the barrier of entry for industry professionals, it will do the same for cybercriminals. We already have services such as ransomware-as-a-service which lower the barrier of entry for scammers who no longer need to figure out how to make their own tools to bypass various EDR and AV technologies. Instead, their job is simply to get someone to click on a link. In 2024, businesses must be even more prepared for criminals to keep pace with their own AI advancements. Attackers have already begun releasing various purpose built GPT’s like WormGPT, FraudGPT, and WolfGPT. These tools are enabling attackers to quickly and easily write malware, ransomware, phishing emails, phishing sites, discover vulnerabilities and much more.
How can businesses best protect themselves from evolving DDoS and Ransomware attacks?
Another challenge for companies is the continuing growth, frequency, and evolution of DDoS attacks. Last year Google reported its largest DDoS attack to date, peaking above 398 million rps. If the big players are struggling to keep up, then the threat landscape is set to be an issue for businesses of any size in 2024.
This growth is driven by a change in technique. In the past, attackers targeted comprised IoT devices, but now hackers are better resourced and can even buy and utilise cloud providers.
In 2024, businesses should expect to continue to ramp up defences against ransomware attacks that don’t just lock up data, but exfiltrates it and holds it ransom. Reputations are on the line even for reporting these events. Attackers are weaponizing the SEC to file formal complaints should a victim fail to report the event. They should also look to upskill employees in social engineering and spotting phishing attacks to reduce points of entry.
How can businesses adapt to meet the new challenges that come with AI developments?
Going into 2024, businesses should continue to prioritise and patch but should expect zero days to grow by building out a Critical Patch Management process. While businesses have gotten better at patch and vulnerability management, attackers have been leveraging more zero-day vulnerabilities to combat these good processes. But even with these effective programs, exploitation of public-facing applications remains the top entry point (21.2%) for attackers according to the Mandiants M-Trends report. Even though the attackers may have less low-hanging fruit, they continue to get creative — and with the ability to scan source code with AI, these threats will only increase further. On the other side of this coin, in 2024, we will start to see defensive solutions that leverage AI to nearly automate the entire process, from identification to bug-fix enabling businesses to keep in step with these actors.
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