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The AI Opportunity in Security Operations

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Artificial intelligence (AI) has long been part of the security landscape, but more recent developments like generative AI bring new challenges and opportunities for the security operations center (SOC).

The Bad News

There are many examples of how generative AI could empower attackers:

  • More convincing phishing emails written and launched on a large scale
  • Malicious binary code inserted into automated and orchestrated processes
  • Polymorphic malware with enhanced evasion or obfuscation techniques
  • Elaborate backstopping to support sophisticated social engineering efforts

The Good News

The AI tools trusted by SOCs today continue to provide effective defense:

  • UEBA – Leveraged by a SIEM, user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) uses machine learning to establish a baseline of normal activity, so threats and attacks — including those created by AI — can be identified.
  • SOAR – As part of a SIEM, security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) incorporates insights from deep learning systems so that as soon as a risk is detected, automated defensive measures are quickly initiated.

There are many potential ways that security operations teams can also deploy generative AI — but at present, there are risks that have to be recognized and mitigated:

  • Hallucination: faulty outputs as the AI gives responses based on sequential probability rather than facts.
  • Model collapse: rapid deterioration of an AI model as it’s increasingly trained on AI-produced output.
  • Non-compliance: regulatory liabilities that could result from sensitive information being ingested by the model.

Secure Solutions

Security information and event management (SIEM) solutions like UEBA and SOAR may still be a SOC’s bulwark against AI-driven threats, but new innovations in generative AI could still be game changers. For example:

  • Simplified query processes so that analysts can retrieve logs and reports using plain language input.
  • Automatic, dynamic creation of playbooks can streamline threat detection, investigation, and response (TDIR).
  • Algorithms could analyze SOC metrics to provide superior data visualizations and reveal long-term trends.
  • Sophisticated AI could combine historical data and predictive analytics to allow proactive threat hunting.

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