Millions of people have been working from home during the recent lockdowns and shelter-in-place restrictions caused by COVID-19. Offices have closed, computer applications have opened, and Zoom has become a household word. Companies across the spectrum have found a new challenge in an old problem: keeping the bad guys out of the network.
Cybersecurity, once the domain of the IT departments of major corporations and government agencies, is now front and center in the minds of small and medium sized businesses with no IT department at all. The COVID-19 pandemic has, indeed, increased our dependence on all things digital. With remote working having become integral to our economies, the rising dependence of citizens and businesses on everything digital is only going to continue.
The digital response to the COVID-19 crisis has also created new security vulnerabilities. Attackers seek to exploit the gaps opened when telecommuting employees use insecure devices and networks. Threat actors also use known attack techniques to exploit people’s fears related to COVID-19. For example, Google tallied more than 18 million malware and phishing emails related to the novel coronavirus on its service each day in April. It also reported identifying more than a dozen government-backed groups using COVID-19 themes for these attempts.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the efforts to contain it have had serious economic and business consequences. McKinsey & Co. reports these are affecting core dimensions of the business environment, from digital strategies to operational and enterprise risk appetite. Supply-chain configuration and business interactions with regulators are likewise being reshaped, as are the ways we think about the very nature of work.
A McKinsey survey of digital sentiment revealed that most employees who are now telecommuting do not expect to return to the workplace soon. About 70% of those responding believe that the ability to continue telecommuting will factor into their next job choice.
The pandemic response has underscored the vital role that security plays in enabling remote operations, both during and after a crisis. As companies reimagine their processes and redesign architecture amid the COVID-19 response, cybersecurity teams are being perceived in new and important ways. They must no longer be seen as a barrier to growth but rather become recognized as strategic partners in technology and business decision making.
McKinsey cautions that with every new device, user, and business that connects to the internet, the threat of cyberattacks increases. If a government cannot provide secure and trusted digital connectivity, economies won’t thrive.
The analyst firm reports there are the five elements of successful a national cybersecurity strategy: a dedicated NCA (national cybersecurity agency) a National Critical Infrastructure Protection program a national incident response and recovery plan defined laws pertaining to all cybercrimes a vibrant cybersecurity ecosystem.
If NCA can only focus on one aspect of cybersecurity, it should be protecting the critical infrastructure of the country. Critical infrastructure is typically the most attractive target for hostile state actors and disruption can have an impact on the economy, business confidence, society, and even overall national security. Critical infrastructure typically consists of both information technology and operational technology, which makes it harder and more complicated to protect.
At a more localized level, the implementation of the BYOD (bring your own device) policy—and its corollary, the use your own device at home policy—is driving the importance of the non-government cybersecurity market. The implementation of the BYOD policy in organizations has seen significant growth as it increases productivity and enhances employee satisfaction.
However, BYOD poses a major challenge, by making corporate data vulnerable to cyberattacks. Employees’ devices have wide-ranging capabilities, and IT departments may not be able to fully evaluate, qualify, and approve each and every device, and that may pose a high security threat to confidential data. Also, AI (artificial intelligence) offers advanced protection through machine learning technology and thus provides a more complete endpoint security, largely mitigating security threats and preventing attacks.
According to Prescient & Strategic Intelligence, the increasing number of cyber frauds and malicious attacks, adoption of BYOD, rising implementation of IoT (internet of things) and increasing number of connected devices are the factors driving the demand for AI solutions in cybersecurity. The growing penetration of the mobile internet, a customer shift to digital banking from traditional banking, and increasing investments by financial, government, and IT firms in the AI technology are some other factors contributing to the industry growth. The result is that the global market for AI in cybersecurity is projected to generate $101.8 billion revenue in 2030, growing with a CAGR of 25.7% during the period 2020–2030.
The data security risks during the COVID-19 period are expected to propel the implementation of AI-based cybersecurity, as the present circumstances are resulting in increasing cyberattacks, which businesses are witnessing as data breaches and exposure of sensitive data. Cybercrime has increased significantly, and malicious actors successfully breached major entities, including government agencies. The WHO (World Health Organization) and the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency are among those who have fallen victim to cyberattacks during this pandemic.
The AI in cybersecurity market is divided into hardware, software, and services. Among these, the hardware category dominated the industry during the historical period (2014–2019). During the period 2020-2030, the software category is projected to witness the fastest growth. AI systems need different types of software, including APIs (application program interfaces), such as speech, language, vision, and sensor data, along with ML (machine learning) algorithms, to make the applications appropriate for cybersecurity. The cloud has made data and applications accessible from anywhere, thereby leading to a higher level of convenience for users—and for hackers and other cybercriminals.
Advances in AI, coupled with the rising need for almost continuous connectivity and realtime communication, are enabling the exponential growth in the efficiency of IoT-powered devices. The number of IoT-connected devices is expected to witness healthy growth in the coming years. According to a report by IDC (Intl. Data Corp.,) there will be around 41 billion IoT-connected devices, generating 79.4 ZB (zettabytes) of data, by 2025. The growing adoption of IoT and increasing number of connected devices are boosting the AI in cybersecurity market growth.
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