Automation and AI cyber security necessary to combat threats

Automate and AI-based tools will be vital in combatting the growing number of cyber threats, according to research conducted by consulting company Reply.

The global cyber security market is expected to reach £300 billion in investments in the next five years, Reply’s “Cyber security Automation” report found, and a large chunk of this spending will be directed towards automating security measures.

The report analyses studies in cyber security alongside Reply’s own evidence and compares data from the Europe-5 (Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium) and the Big-5 (US, UK, Brazil, China and India).

As hacking, phishing, ransomware, and malware attacks become more frequent and sophisticated, the adoption of hyper-automation techniques highlight how AI and machine learning present possible solutions, and can be applied at every stage of protection – from software to infrastructure, and from devices to cloud computing.

According to the report, automated cyber security will be seen, particularly, in four different segments: application security, endpoint security, data security, and Internet of Things security.

For application security, automated testing at every step is crucial for decreasing the number of vulnerabilities in any application, and many testing and analysis tools utilise AI to increase accuracy and capabilities.

The report found that there will be enormous growth in investment in application security automation across the Europe-5, reaching €669 million by 2026, which is around seven-times current values. Investment in Big-5 countries is expected to hit €3.5 billion.

Endpoints such as desktops, laptops, and smartphones are sensitive elements and easy sources of entry for cyber attacks if not adequately protected. With companies deploying more devices in recent years, automation tools such as ‘Endpoint detection and response (EDR)’ and ‘Extended detection and response’ (XDR) are used to accelerate response time to cyber threats. These tools have seen significant investment from the Europe-5 and Big-5 markets, reaching €757 million and €3.65 billion respectively.

For data security and protection, data breaches can be solved by AI tools that simplify data security procedures, from discovery to classification to remediation. Security automation is expected to reduce the cost of a data breach by playing an important role in various phases of a cyberattack, such as in data loss prevention tools (DLP), encryption, and tokenization. In an effort to better protect system security and data privacy, companies in the Europe-5 cluster are expected to invest €915 million in data security automation by 2026. The Big-5 market will quadruple its value, reaching €4.4 billion in the same timeframe.

Finally, in terms of Internet of Things security, it is estimated that the IoT security automation market will exceed the €1 billion mark in the Europe-5 cluster by 2026. In the Big-5 market, investments will reach €4.6 billion.

Filippo Rizzante, Reply’s CTO, said: “Every day, cyberattacks hit public and private services, government and healthcare systems, causing enormous damage and costs; therefore, it is more urgent than ever to reconsider security strategies and reach new levels of maturity through automation, remembering that though artificial intelligence has increased the threat of the hacker, it is through taking advantage of AI’s opportunities that cyberattacks can be prevented and countered.”