Page 173 - Cyber Defense eMagazine June 2024

The rising importance of cyber resilience

In response to the ever-evolving threat landscape, the imperative to implement and evolve cyber
resilience strategies becomes even more pressing.

Cyber resilience is a paradigm larger and more critical than traditional cyber security, as it not only
ensures defenses are working as intended, but also helps organisations withstand and quickly recover
from cyber disruptions and attacks.

Gone are the days of merely reacting to breaches, cyber attacks are a case of when, not if, and
organisations must work to prevent, react and recover from successful attacks to minimize damage and
downtime.

A recent report from the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) underscored the evolving and
significant threat to critical national infrastructure, attributed in part to state-aligned groups. On top of this,
the department warned that AI is likely to increasing the global threat of ransomware over the next two
years, with AI already causing a rise in frequency.

AI can therefore empower less skilled cyber criminals to conduct more effective attacks, while giving the
most dangerous cyber criminals even more firepower.

With a rise in threat level, both in frequency and complexity, there is huge pressure on typically under-
resourced security teams to ensure their cyber defenses keep pace. Which is exactly why they need to
adopt an approach of cyber resilience.

How AI is complicating security readiness

To run AI applications and processes effectively, including AI-enabled security applications, PCs should
be equipped with a minimum of 32GB of RAM and either a stand-alone GPU or an integrated NPU.
However, 92% of enterprise PCs have insufficient RAM capacity for AI.

It’s no wonder why IDC forecasts that demand for PCs supporting new innovations in AI will surge from
50 million units to 167 million by 2027, an increase of 60%.

This lack of AI readiness can have huge knock-on consequences on security posture.

Significant investment in AI-capable endpoint fleets can often divert budget and resources away from
critical IT and security priorities that can leave gaps in security and risk policies – at a time of heightened
threat.

Additionally, devices loaded with new software add new security complexities while also impacting
performance and security, especially considering endpoint security applications typically fail frequently
and many organizations are running behind in critical vulnerability patching.

Ultimately, AI will act, and already is acting, as a double-edged sword when it comes to cyber security. It
is introducing more risk as vulnerabilities and AI-enabled threats evolve but can also be adapted into
defense technology and procedures by organizations implementing cyber resilience.

Cyber Defense eMagazine – June 2024 Edition 173
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