In cyberdefense, preventing attacks is only half the battle. Teams also need to be ready to detect and respond to incidents that surface. Since cybercriminals are making use of the most advanced technologies, like AI, all forward-thinking organizations need to be doing the same.
Is your organization’s threat response up to the task? Schedule a consultation to find out!
How AI Minimizes Risks from Insider Threats
Artificial intelligence (AI) enables powerful, flexible technological capabilities through enhanced processing power, automation, predictive generation, and more. Cybersecurity teams can and should leverage these functions to protect sensitive information—especially from high-stakes risks like insider threats. AI helps organizations prevent, detect, address, and mitigate them.
Appreciating the impact of AI on insider threat detection and response requires understanding:
- How AI enhances overall cyber defense implementation
- What effective insider threat hunting looks like in practice
- How compliance comes into the picture with AI threat hunting
- Which advanced techniques leverage AI for optimal risk mitigation
Working with a cybersecurity advisory partner to select, deploy, and manage AI protections is the best way to protect your organization from the insidious threats that insider attackers can pose.
The Utility of AI for Cyber Defense Implementation
The reason AI has exploded in popularity over the past few years is that it allows organizations to perform more robust, complex tasks more efficiently. With respect to cyber defense, AI gives teams access to data collection and processing power that they can use to understand their risk environments more thoroughly. It can also automate both rote processes like audit logging and more high-leverage procedures, like prioritizing and escalating incident response mechanisms.
On the flip side, AI also provides similar benefits to cybercriminals. This is why it’s arguably the biggest cybersecurity threat and best bet for cyber defense. Per McKinsey estimates, phishing attacks have surged 1200% since the rise of Gen AI back in 2022. More powerful processing and automation have made it easier to launch more attacks, faster, at higher success rates.
Automation plays two roles in cyber defense. Freeing up resources on more rote processes covers lower quality, higher volume attacks (i.e., phishing) that are more prevalent now because of AI. But it also allows teams to dedicate more time and energy to preventing more complex but infrequent attacks, such as multi-level ransomware or other advanced persistent threats (APTs).
A recent RSI Security webinar explored how AI generates threat intelligence to combat some of the most elusive threats on the dark web. Watch the recording or read our recap to learn more.
Monitoring and Mitigating Insider Threats
Some of the most impactful threats to any organization come from within. Insider threats include both intentional and unintentional actions that can compromise data security, and they typically emerge because of some combination of animus and ignorance. The most emblematic example is a disgruntled current or former employee who takes it upon themselves to purposely put an organization in harm’s way. Whether they work alone or in tandem with outside attackers, these insiders can compromise large amounts of data quickly without being caught before it’s too late.
What makes these threats so dangerous is the fact that they’re coming from inside the house.
Many cyber defense systems are biased toward external threat monitoring, looking for ways that cybercriminals and other unknown, untrusted entities can infiltrate systems. Internal monitoring might focus more on vulnerabilities in hardware and software, assuming trust across the staff.
AI cyber defense tools make it easier to employ a Zero Trust approach that assumes any and all individuals could compromise security. Automated monitoring and access controls like step-up security and flagging unfamiliar behaviors minimize the likelihood of a successful insider attack.
While intentional internal risks can be the most insidious, unintentional insider incidents are also cause for concern. Ignorance of cybersecurity best practices verging into outright negligence can allow an outside attacker the same amount of access to systems as concerted sabotage.
Compliance Considerations of AI-Assisted Security
AI cybersecurity tools make hunting the biggest threats easier and more effective. But all that efficiency comes with costs and considerations, and one of the biggest is compliance. Namely, utilizing automation and AI-powered generation creates questions about data privacy, integrity, and other requirements of both AI-specific rulesets and broader cybersecurity laws and guides.
For instance, consider some AI-specific compliance concerns in widely applicable regulations:
- The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires covered entities in and outside of health to safeguard protected health information (PHI). Per HIPAA Journal, the Privacy Rule requires authorization from subjects of PHI for certain uses of AI, unless they qualify as Treatment, Payment, or Healthcare Operations (TPO). In addition, training and awareness activities must be updated to include AI processes.
- The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) applies to organizations that collect the personal data of CA residents. Recent proposed changes to the CCPA restrict the ways this personal data can be subjected to automated decision-making technology (ADMT).
- The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to organizations that collect personal information of EU residents. Article 22 governs the rights of data subjects with respect to specific ADMT processes, like opting out of profiling, which must be upheld.
These regulatory concerns apply across insider threats and all other threat vectors. With respect to training mandates, like for HIPAA, they help ensure that AI implementation doesn’t add to the risk of unintentional data compromise. But, in all cases, they mandate greater accountability, which is a boon to insider threat detection. Visibility and control help mitigate insider threats.
At present, there is no comprehensive AI regulation required federally across the US. However, state-based regulations (like CCPA above) and international laws (like GDPR) do mandate AI protections in many cases already, and more regulations may emerge in the years to come.
Top-level Governance via AI-Assisted vCISO
Monitoring for, detecting, preventing, and responding to cyber incidents all depend on sound governance. This holds especially true when internal threats drive incidents—and when AI-powered safeguards are in place to mitigate them. At large, mature organizations, a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) typically develops and maintains policies that ensure sound AI governance, whether aligned with a framework like ISO 42001 or tailored to the organization’s needs.
However, organizations without a traditional CISO can leverage a Virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO) for cybersecurity governance. A vCISO solution replaces a single internal expert with a third-party team thereof, trading in one career’s worth of experience for collective decades of savvy across multiple related fields. Furthermore, entrusting this function to external experts dispels the possibility of an internal threat at the highest point of command.
To maximize your security ROI, choose vCISO services that use AI to implement efficient controls and deliver expert fractional advisory. To learn more, consult our AI-assisted vCISO datasheet.
Streamline Insider Threat Detection and Response with AI
Ultimately, AI tools are ideal for mitigating insider threats because they offer greater power and efficiency for all cyberdefense purposes. Insidious risks like intentional sabotage from inside are some of the hardest threats to monitor for and defend against using traditional methods, but AI makes understanding and addressing these threats easier—especially with sound governance.
RSI Security has helped countless organizations rethink and optimize their cyberdefenses to protect against insider threats and all other risks. You can count on RSI Security to prioritize service—because protecting your systems the right way is the only way. We’ll work with you to do so efficiently.
To learn more about our AI-enhanced threat response, contact RSI Security today.
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