There’s no arguing that the fallouts of poor cybersecurity in government agencies can lead to deeply damaging and disastrous outcomes. These entities, which don’t just store confidential, state-level secrets but also data on practically every citizen in the country, are those that require the most stringent protective measures available.
It’s no surprise, therefore, that they’re prime targets for malicious hackers. In fact, the government sector has been identified among the five most-attacked industries over the past five years, alongside the healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, and transportation sectors.
Given the importance of upholding cybersecurity in government agencies, AI is being increasingly pursued as the primary defence against a relentless spate of attacks. In this post, we take a look at why Artificial Intelligence may be the answer.
Security events are those that present a risk or are successful in attacking an organisation and is a term very familiar to IT and security teams in government agencies.
Here, AI and machine learning can be combined to systematically sort through the data gathered from these security events through SIEM technology, helping agencies detect real-time threats more efficiently.
AI can be used to map events and use data models to classify cyberattacks and sort through harmless events from threatening incidents, using past data.
In fact, Artificial Intelligence can detect threats within seconds or minutes, faster than any previously-used cybersecurity system or human agents. AI also reduces the response time of government agencies, helping them address security threats more effectively.
Ultimately, this type of technology can improve cybersecurity in government agencies by identifying traffic patterns, allowing security teams to spot cybercriminals from a mile away based on their online activity.
The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to an interconnected web of devices, which can connect to the internet. For government agencies, IoT, naturally, represents a major risk, given the vulnerability of certain internet-enabled devices.
AI proves to be champion, here, because it can monitor IoT network entry points and alert security officials in the event that there’s unusual contact between IoT gateways and network hosts, which may be being used by cybercriminals to breach government IT systems and get their hands on confidential and protected data.
Nowadays, storing sensitive and confidential information behind password protection, alone, isn’t sufficient.
While we’re all accustomed to multi-factor authentication including OTPs and PINs, AI takes it a step further and safeguards cybersecurity in government agencies by diving into factors like user behaviour, IP geolocation, biometrics, device usage, and other factors to determine whether access to data is secure.
At the government level, emails are a professional and handy way of communicating. Given the type and nature of data exchanged via these emails, however, they’re also a hotbed of activity for determined and undeterred cybercriminals.
For this reason, the application and scope of AI within this aspect of cybersecurity in government agencies have been growing in recent years. Now, machine learning software can undertake email monitoring and prevent cyber threats like phishing and other malicious elements of social engineering.
From scanning methods where AI attempts to identify certain features of an email that may pose a risk to natural language processing, where text and phrases are interpreted in line with messaging traditionally associated with phishing, government email accounts are more secure than ever.
AI-based antivirus software is now helping government agencies with their cybersecurity efforts, particularly through advanced malware and virus detection.
This software uses anomaly detection to study programme behaviour. What this means is that AI-based antivirus applications focus on the activity or behaviour arising from computer programmes, rather than trying to match malware or virus signatures, as done with traditional antivirus software.
AI programmes identify patterns over time, thereby detecting new threats without requiring any updates.
While AI is not a panacea to every cybersecurity threat or woe, it’s certainly transforming the security landscape in the government sector.
By leveraging it in the way we’ve described, it’s now possible to enjoy greater protection against the spate of threats and attacks these agencies deal with on a regular basis.
The key, here, is to apply AI tools, strategies and techniques intelligently. This is best done by cybersecurity firms with years of experience and those who are qualified and certified in this area.