Machine Learning & AI to Use Big Data to Tackle Cyber Crimes

access_time June 24, 2019
by   TechmavenitAdmin
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Artificial intelligence and machine learning have achieved widespread acclaim, making known their presence in every sphere of human activity. However, despite their visible presence across every major sector presently, one area where AI has worked silently without much of a public knowledge is in the realm of cyber security. Artificial intelligence is helping organizations predict, prevent and defeat the next wave of cyber attacks. Cyber attacks do happen periodically, causing devastating effects on governments and institutions and bringing in its wake, loss of precious data, reputational damage, system failures etc. Traditional antivirus programs prove mostly ineffective Traditional antivirus  programs that currently exist continuously fail to act as an effective deterrent against sophisticated cyber attacks as they can only take remedial measures after an attack  has occurred and not any preventive measures that would insulate systems from an impending attack. The present crop of tech savvy hackers, however, employ latest automated tools like bots to gnaw away at the most vulnerable portions of a technologically deficient anti – virus system and render it completely ineffective. All the sensitive data on our systems will be lost or in some cases as in the case of NotPetya or WannyCry attacks, ransom has to be paid to retrieve the lost data. What we need is greater sophistication and increased surveillance to detect crimes long before they ever occur. This is where machine learning and artificial intelligence, using big data, helps tackle cyber crimes. The International Institute of Analytics suggests , “big data for security analytics will be the first line of defense when it comes to threat detection, deterrence, and prevention”. Predictive analysis is the key What is at the core of machine learning’s ability to eliminate cyber attacks is its predictive analysis ability- capability to monitor network traffic and learn what is normal within a system and flag any suspicious activity including variations in the normal routine. Big data will help analysts visualize cyber attacks by taking the complexity from various data sources and simplifying the patterns in to visualizations. Sensing changes in behavior patterns According to Jamal Elmellas, CTO at Auriga Consulting, if someone logs in every day at 08.55 and that suddenly changes to 01.00, the system will flag this as suspicious behavior.” Additionally, according to Dr. Christian Stevenson, renowned tech expert, machine learning and artificial intelligence will drive cyber security in the near future and companies will fall back on these to eliminate malware attacks. Some tend to believe that big data will quickly solve all cyber security issues. The reality is that data and analytics will help companies  identify all the anomalies that occur in the usual behavior pattern among individuals. More than the data availability, what matters is making use of it  What should then be taken note of is that the core issue is not about the availability of any data but rather the manner in which one makes profitable use of that data to aid cyber crime detection. Data becomes mere “information” unless this data is used to improve the  security aspect. Being able to respond effectively to threats that are discernible in the available data is the key to a big data security solution. In the present era of continuous cyber attacks, cyber experts are predicting that humans will increasing rely on artificial intelligence and machine learning to thwart every form of malware attack. Additionally, for machine learning algorithms to be successful in detecting and fighting cyber crimes, the contribution provided by big data is indeed significant. Without the support extended by big data, no cyber security threat can be eliminated at its origin.

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