As the cyber workforce skills gap persists, companies that fail to upskill their IT teams with the knowledge to defend themselves in the ever-changing tech landscape are vulnerable to opportunistic attackers. In addition to prioritizing skills for emerging tech trends, organizations need to ensure their workforces have fundamental skills to conduct active cybersecurity measures effectively, including the know-how to defend against AI-powered threats.
Against a backdrop of growing cyber skills gaps in the technology workforce, a recent survey conducted by Pluralsight found that 81% of surveyed IT professionals are concerned about the rise in AI-powered threats. Surveyed respondents indicated that threat intelligence is the most valuable skill for addressing emerging cyberattacks, with reverse engineering cited as the second most valuable security skill. IT workforces must possess the right skills to combat these threats and mitigate risk.
These findings underscore AI-powered threats that organizations are facing as they seek to fill traditional positions or, in some cases, create new cybersecurity roles to bolster their resistance and better defend themselves in the future. As confirmed in a recent warning issued by the FBI, the threat posed by cyber criminals utilizing AI tools to conduct sophisticated phishing/social engineering attacks and deepfake scams is on the rise.
Bad Actors Gain Proficiency Using AI
While the proliferation of AI doesn’t necessarily drive an increase in threats, it enhances the proficiency and scale of bad actors to conduct cyberattacks, thus driving the need for workforces to be better prepared to address risks. In the same way that a legitimate developer can leverage AI tools, malware developers can also take advantage of these tools to find faster and more effective ways to launch an attack. Cybersecurity professionals should proactively be aware of these AI tools, their capabilities and how attackers use them to better educate themselves on how to defend against them.
To avoid common cybersecurity upskilling mistakes, organizations need to focus on active security operations, assessments, control measures, and consistently practicing their response to simulated AI attacks. Organizations can gain valuable insights into the tactics and techniques of threat actors by analyzing threat intelligence. To form better security strategies. This information helps security leaders make informed decisions about security strategies, resource allocation, and prioritization of cybersecurity defenses.
Take Action Now or Be Left Defenseless
As threats continue to escalate, organizations that are not currently taking action to enhance the cybersecurity skills of their workforce will find themselves defenseless against attacks. To upskill teams to defend against AI-powered threats, all security related roles should incorporate threat intelligence into their day-to-day functions to establish actionable insights and proactive measures.
The benefits of threat intelligence measures include creating preemptive defense strategies, driving informed decision making, and enhancing incident response capabilities. Organizations that leverage threat intelligence are better positioned to stay ahead of potential threats by recognizing early warnings of malicious activities and executing timely mitigation to thwart a successful attack.
Threat intelligence also enhances incident response capabilities by providing context related to security related incidents such as malware, phishing, social engineering, and password breaches. By enabling organizations to understand the scope and source of incidents, threat intelligence can increase the speed and efficiency of response efforts.
Implement Threat Intelligence to Boost Defenses
Cybersecurity measures against AI-powered attacks will accelerate and become more comprehensive as the threat landscape grows. As such, IT professionals need to be continually trained to protect against these threats by implementing threat intelligence into their workflow and leveraging the active security skills that are needed to boost their organization’s defenses.
