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Will Cybersecurity be Replaced by AI or Enhance Talent?
As pattern-detecting artificial intelligence propels automation across industries, some speculate the dawn of “roboprotector” systems possessing the innate learning capabilities to entirely replace human cybersecurity analysts.
Yet given the art elements of vulnerability assessment, fluid adversary behavior analysis, communications-intensive threat hunting, plus executive strategy interpretation required to achieve resilient security, will AI realistically displace or rather empower personnel across cyber career continuums?
Let’s dig deeper on AI’s evolving role bolstering the scalable delivery of cyber protections – and why ultimately the existential threat to human relevance, creativity and meaning brought by full automation remains overblown.
AI: Augmenting Analysts
Make no mistake – AI is increasingly essential for accelerating threat detection, response times and skill gaps struggling security teams face. Sophisticated machine learning refined by high quality, context-rich data equips algorithms spotting behavioral anomalies, malicious payloads and zero day exploits otherwise invisible relying on manual methods alone.
By handling applicants of manual threat hunting workflows, correlating vast signals across tool outputs and flagging priority incidents for human investigation, AI alleviates analysts burdened by alert overload. This real-time prioritization allows professionals focusing hunts guided by machine precision vs chasing noise. The future indeed points to harmonious convergence maximizing respective AI/human strengths.
The Creativity Caveat
Yet even with analytics handling rudimentary security operations like intrusion detection, log auditing and endpoint monitoring, the essence of resilient cybersecurity boils down to artfully balancing usability, access and protection.
Machines still badly lack human judgement reading situations to thread the needle allowing productivity without permissions spiraling into negligence. Nor can software engage employees upholding policy through empathy.
So while smarter algorithms will rightly accelerate discovery of commoditized threats, ultimately humans fills cyber’s creative void devising customized controls, aligning technologies to distinct objectives and cultivating culture cementing defense – contributions exclusive to human ingenuity.
The Gist
Instead of the term “artificial intelligence” suggesting human replacement across domains by superior automated capability, what we are encountering is simply “assisted intelligence” which are tools amplifying what people have developed.
Between strategy, intuition and vision propelling security, so long as vulnerabilities exist in technologies engineered by people for people, the promises and perils of progress will intertwine human oversight driving cyber resilience into the foreseeable future.
So rather than AI eliminating jobs, look for it to enrich roles, optimism prevailing.