Industries far and wide are raving about all of the ways that artificial intelligence can help transform the world into a more efficient and productive environment. Within cybersecurity, AI is already leaving a lasting impact. Today it is already being used to alleviate the industry's talent shortage by automating processes, increase the accuracy of alerts, minimize false positives in technology, cut down investigation times during incidents, eliminate the need for passwords, and more!

Artificial intelligence is one of the biggest buzzwords of the year. It seems to be a much-needed answer to many woes across various industries and inherent challenges. While many are embracing the concept, others remain skeptical about the true benefit that artificial intelligence can have in businesses. No matter what side of the fence a company is on, there are some considerations to keep in mind and common mistakes to be mindful of as you embark on your AI journey.

The numbers are shocking. According to the 2019 The State of Work Report, employees spend just 40% of their workday on primary tasks. A Gallup poll showed that disengaged employees cost companies in the United States between $450 and $550 billion per year, and highly engaged teams are 21% more profitable than others. So how can an organization find out what employees are doing when they are on the clock so they can take steps to increase engagement and boost productivity?

The recent IBM 2019 Cost of Data Breach survey found that the cost of a data breach had risen 12% over the past 5 years to $3.92 million on average. While 51% of the data breach attacks were attributed to malicious or criminal actors, a stunning 24% of the breaches were caused by negligent employees or contractors. The report also notesed that the 51% of the criminal actors included, “malware infections, criminal insiders, phishing/social engineering and SQL injection.”

The government sector and all of the agencies that make up this powerful ecosystem play an integral role in global safety and security. Whether considering the U.S. or other countries around the world, cybersecurity tends to be a core factor in national security affairs. As countries increasingly rely on technology to fulfill basic living needs such as getting access to clean water, electricity, and transportation, the risks drastically expand.

Among the different types of cyberattacks, insider threats are the hardest to track and have the highest rate of success. This can be attributed to their use, or rather misuse, of legitimate credentials, machines, and access privileges. Traditional SIEM solutions use simple rule-based alerting to detect potential insider threats, which cannot analyze user behavior or detect any anomalies therein.