GEC NEWS WIREAs businesses struggle to combat increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity attacks, the severity of which is exacerbated by both the vanishing IT perimeters in today’s mobile and IoT era, and an acute shortage of skilled security professionals, IT security teams need a both a new approach and powerful new tools. Increasingly, they are looking to artificial intelligence (AI) as a key weapon to win the battle against stealthy threats inside their IT infrastructures, according to a new global research study conducted by the Ponemon Institute on behalf of Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company.
The Ponemon Institute study, entitled “Closing the IT Security Gap with Automation & AI in the Era of IoT,” surveyed 4,000 security and IT professionals across the Americas, Europe and Asia, to understand what makes security deficiencies so hard to fix, and what types of technologies and processes are needed to stay a step ahead of bad actors within the new threat landscape.
Twenty-five percent of respondents said they currently use some form of AI-based security solution, with another 26 percent stating they plan on deploying these types of products within the next 12 months.
“Despite massive investments in cybersecurity programs, our research found most businesses are still unable to stop advanced, targeted attacks, with 45 percent believing they are not realizing the full value of their defense arsenal,” said Larry Ponemon, chairman, Ponemon Institute. “The situation has become a ‘perfect storm’, with nearly half of respondents saying it’s very difficult to protect complex and dynamically changing attack surfaces, especially given the current lack of security staff with the necessary skills and expertise to battle today’s persistent, sophisticated, well trained and well financed attackers. Against this backdrop, AI-based security tools, which can automate tasks and free up IT personnel to manage other aspects of a security program, were viewed as critical for helping businesses keep up with increasing threat levels.”
“Partnering with the Ponemon Institute helps us to improve customer experiences by better understanding security teams’ challenges and then arming them with advanced solutions that enable quick identification and responses to an ever-changing threat landscape,” said Larry Lunetta, vice president of security solutions marketing for Aruba. “The insight gained from this study enables us to continually improve our ability to provide an enterprise wired and wireless network security framework with an integrated and more comprehensive approach for gaining back visibility and control.”
