The Record - Issue 21: Summer 2021

48 www. t e c h n o l o g y r e c o r d . c om A s traditional company barriers broke down, and remote working became the norm, the threat landscape rapidly changed, bringing cybersecurity to centre stage for every digital organisation. To be resilient in this hybrid working para- digm, businesses need to react to this evolved landscape as threats continue to grow both in size and complexity. Threats now exist both from within and externally, from individuals, cyber- crime organisations and even nation states. The existing norms of securing organisational IT will not stand to test in this new reality. Enter cyber- security solutions infused with artificial intelli- gence, powered by the cloud. By 2024, the AI market is expected to break the $500 billion mark, according to IDC’s Worldwide Semiannual Artificial Intelligence Tracker. Despite significant investments, companies are only just realising the business benefits of AI, which include but are not limited to solving cybersecurity chal- lenges and creating business resilience. Protecting dispersed workforces As organisations adopt hybrid working approaches, employees will work in less secure environments, at least part of the time. Security teams have had to remediate immediate opera- tional, process and technology gaps related to the pandemic-induced response and consider how to approach security with this new working pattern. Human error causes 95 per cent of cyber­ security breaches. With multiple security sys- tems come multiple platforms and interfaces that need to be checked, increasing the risk of human error and notifications being missed. These factors add more challenges to an already complex environment. A comprehensive architecture which leads to a strong security posture is fundamentally achieved by initially understanding and rea- soning over the threat landscape. Technology solutions which reason over identity, security, compliance and device management enable organisations to extend security to all data devices, all identities, all platforms and all clouds. The vast majority of cybersecurity incidents derive from weak passwords, phishing attacks and password spraying. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre has taken down more scams in the last year than the previous three combined. Every organisation can immediately reduce this vulnerability by enablement multi-factor authen- tication. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is not yet in widespread utilisation, to the delight of cybercriminals. For example, only 18 per cent of Microsoft customers who have purchased the right to use MFA have enabled it across their workforce. Act on this today. Combatting cyber criminals The ability for companies to be able to safeguard their people, information, and systems has never been more crucial. In the aftermath of the pan- demic, organisations are seizing the opportunity to reimagine processes and redesign architecture. Cybersecurity teams and cybersecurity meas- ures must be re-evaluated and future-proofed to Reinventing cybersecurity with AI AI solutions can help businesses adapt to an evolving threat landscape that is becoming increasingly complex M I C K MCNE I L : LOG I CA L I S V I EWPO I NT