Now that the world has gone digital, businesses and organizations that will thrive, in this computer age, must prioritize online presence. And over the years, the importance of this is becoming more and more obvious, thanks to the many benefits it has afforded businesses and individuals, especially in the past few years. 

However, while trying to create an online presence for businesses, brands, and even for ourselves, we disclose a copious amount of sensitive information about ourselves. While this may be important to business, it can be dangerous if valuable and sensitive information gets into the wrong hands. 

From Social Security numbers to bank account numbers to social media profiles, smart thieves basically have access to all the data they need to assume someone else’s identity; Identity theft. 

Identity theft explains when someone uses your personal or financial information without your approval.

These attackers steal your name and address, credit card, or bank account numbers, Social Security number, or medical insurance account numbers, etc. and use them to harm you in different ways such as, buy things with your credit cards, open a phone, electricity, or gas account in your name, use your health insurance to get medical care, steal your tax refund and lots more. This financial and reputational damage could take months and sometimes, years to recover from. 

Identity monitoring simply helps you detect irregular use of your information and informs you when your name shows up in a change of address request, on social media, request to cash a check

court or arrest records, or websites that attackers use to trade stolen data of their victims. 

How Artificial Intelligence Identifies Unknown Threats

Cyber attacks are getting more polished and sophisticated by the day, and cybersecurity providers are regularly releasing new patches and measures to mitigate the threats posed by these cybercriminals. It’s more like a never-ending cycle.

However, since the emergence of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity providers have leveraged it as an important tool to stay ahead of the curve. AI is not the ultimate solution to cybercrimes, but it does make defensive measures, and response times faster and stronger. 

More so, AI is not a substitute for human intelligence, especially when it comes to identifying and mitigating threats, but it boosts cybersecurity in different ways. Let’s check out a few. 

AI Learns More Over Time

Artificial Intelligence Technology is proficient, competent and it can improve layers of security over time. It uses machine learning and deep learning to learn a business network’s behavior over time. 

It then masters the security pattern and saves them. Any deviation or security incidents from these patterns, AI detects and responds to them accordingly. Potential threats with similar traits to those recorded get blocked early enough. 

Interestingly, AI never stops learning. That makes it almost impossible for cybercriminals to beat its intelligence. 

Artificial Intelligence Identifies Unknown Threats

There is only so much humans can do to identify cyber threats. Cybercriminals launch millions of attacks with different motives, and through different channels such as Spyware, Trojan, and Ransomware. It could take many months for humans to identify and prevent these threats. Bearing in mind that a single successful attack could completely damage a company. 

However, AI technology is faster and stronger and over the years, it has proven to be one of the best technologies in mapping and stopping unknown threats from ravaging a company. 

Securing Authentication

Websites, especially e-commerce websites, have a feature where users input their contact and other sensitive information before accessing their services or buying products. To protect the information of your clients, such websites need an extra layer of security. This is to ensure users browse safely on your network. 

AI technology provides a means of authenticating users before logging in to their accounts. It employs different advanced tools such as CAPTCHA, facial recognition, fingerprint scanners, and more for authentications. These features can help to detect if a log-in attempt is genuine or not. 

Vulnerability Management 

Vulnerability management is a form of security measure designed to proactively mitigate, or prevent the exploitation of IT susceptibilities which exist in an operating system or organization.   

The process involves identifying, categorizing, prioritizing, and fixing vulnerabilities in operating systems, enterprise applications (whether in the cloud or on-premises), browsers, and end-user applications.

Vulnerability management is a thorough process and one that must be done by experts in the field. Subsequent risk evaluations are carried out to determine how adequate patches and solutions can be formulated to either correct the threat or completely remove it. 

However, if the risk cannot be completely erased, a formal risk acceptance by the management of the organization and then solutions for mitigation, remedy, and recovery would then be considered. 

Operating System vulnerabilities are security gaps that could be abused by cybercriminals to cause huge damage to network assets and even steal very sensitive information.  You should know attackers are steadily looking for new vulnerabilities to exploit. 

Vulnerability management helps you regularly check for new vulnerabilities and ultimately, prevent cybersecurity breaches.