The Ultimate Guide to Cloud Security Best Practices

Cloud-based services have evolved significantly in recent years. So, as more businesses transition to a hybrid environment or adopt a cloud-first model, those in the industry must stay on top of the latest cloud security best practices. Here’s what you should know.

Why Is Cloud Security Important?

While the public is gradually becoming more aware of the importance of cloud security, there is still a lingering misconception that cloud security isn’t essential. Many businesses assume that security is up to the cloud service provider.

No matter how secure a cloud platform is, securing a business’s devices, data, and everything held within (and connected to) the cloud is a must-do. Fortunately, every cloud security engineer is aware of that. Still, it can make your job a bit tougher when you have people at your organization that aren’t familiar with the need for cloud security.

When cloud security is brought into question, you must remind your team members that:

◉ Cloud providers are not responsible for securing a business’s data or connections.

◉ Lack of cloud security can lead to outages and downtime that impact operations.

◉ Failing to govern cloud security properly can lead to significant compliance issues.

◉ Designing security into cloud architecture from the start ensures resilience.

With those things in mind, the next question that always comes up is logical but not so easy to answer. That is: How exactly do you achieve cloud security? It’s time to step back and review cloud security best practices.

5 Cloud Security Best Practices

Whether you are thinking about becoming a cloud security engineer for the first time, reskilling after taking a break from your career, or upskilling so you can continue advancing, reviewing the best practices is always worthwhile.

Here are five essential cloud security best practices you need to keep at the forefront of your planning:

1. Categorize Your Cloud Locations and Service

Before improving cloud security, you must first map out where everything is and determine whether things are in the best place. More specifically, this means choosing the right cloud location (public, private, or hybrid) and the best service (SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, or FaaS).

There is no one-size-fits-all answer when figuring out how to best use the cloud for your project. Choosing the appropriate cloud location and service will require an in-depth review of the assets, information, users, and use cases of whatever it is you’re trying to store.

If you’re working with an organization already using the cloud, you can simplify things by mapping out where things are now. Once you have a complete picture, you can decide if and when things need to move around.

2. Understand the Shared Responsibility Model

Cloud service providers never accept full responsibility for securing your data. It simply wouldn’t be feasible to work with every client to ensure their connections and devices are secure. Nor could they follow each unique security procedure when encrypting, storing, and accessing their data.

Often, the contract with a cloud provider will limit their responsibility to host infrastructure, network controls, and the physical security of the servers where the cloud lives. As such, cloud service providers have what’s known as a shared responsibility model. This means the provider takes on some of the responsibilities. The client (you or your business) then agrees to handle the rest.

Depending on your business’s needs, you might try negotiating with a cloud provider to get more or less responsibility. In most cases, this leaves the client to handle other security responsibilities, such as access management and when, if, and how you store certain types of data. But remember, the more responsibility you take on, the more control you’ll have, which is a good thing for today’s businesses.

3. Create an Access Management Policy

Access management is always in the hands of the client. One critical cloud security best practice is learning to create an access management policy and handle it as the organization changes and grows. To put it simply, the purpose of an access management policy is to:

◉ Define all users in your organization.

◉ Determine what rights each user should have.

◉ Control when rights are granted and revoked.

On paper, it sounds simple, but it can be more difficult in practice. You might decide that a user’s privileged access to a particular system should be revoked if they hand in their resignation or if they are terminated. But it takes automation or manual input to achieve that promptly.

Moreover, access management requires an increasingly flexible approach. For proper security, you’ll need to determine if a user truly needs to be granted privilege access to a system indefinitely when they only need that access for an hour. Automating privilege escalation and de-escalation requires the right tools and a strategy in and of itself. Still, it’s worth pursuing (and may be required for some cloud use cases).

4. Perform Penetration Testing and Create a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) Plan

One of the most crucial activities a cloud security professional can invest in is continuous monitoring and regular testing, such as pen tests. This allows you to find new vulnerabilities as they appear and ensure that you always resolve risks of the highest priority first. As you go along with your testing, you’ll use that information to help inform the creation and management of a BCDR plan.

A BCDR plan is essential to ensuring uptime and resiliency. Many scenarios will need to be factored into your BCDR plan. In addition, your plan should be informed by real-world threats and vulnerabilities, like those detected by pen tests.

How often you conduct pen tests and utilize other assessments depends on your organization and the available resources. Still, your BCDR plan should be continuously reviewed and updated as things change. Additionally, someone should ensure relevant employees are aware of their responsibilities under the BCDR plan. That way, everyone can act quickly if the plan needs to be activated.

5. Use Log Management and Continuous Monitoring

Finally, in addition to regular testing, constant monitoring of your cloud environment is necessary to ensure secure operations. Your exact monitoring tools depend on your selected cloud services, industry, and unique business use cases. Still, several recommendations exist to help guide the way.

One of the ways to help prepare yourself for making such selections is to invest your time into becoming a certified cloud security professional. This will give you the foundation to confidently approach any cloud environment and ensure that the proper cloud security best practices are followed.

Become a Certified Cloud Security Engineer with EC-Council

With more businesses choosing hybrid cloud and cloud-first models, there is a growing market for those interested in becoming certified cloud security engineers. If you’d like to do the same, the best place to start is with a certified cloud security professional program, like the Certified Cloud Security Engineer (C|CSE) course from EC-Council. As part of the C|CSE online course, you’ll learn how to strategize and implement a BCDR plan as it applies to cloud environments. You’ll also become confident in conducting thorough cloud security audits and penetration tests to ensure a comprehensive cloud security plan. In addition to obtaining a wealth of cloud security knowledge, the C|CSE course also stands out for its applicability in vendor-neutral environments while offering vendor-specific lessons pertaining to the most prominent cloud service providers, including AWS, Azure, and GCP. As a result, you will be prepared to tackle and resolve cloud security concerns in any environment you face. If you’d like to explore the robust curriculum in the Cloud Security Engineer certification, we welcome you to do so.

Source: eccouncil.org

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Why I Recommend the Certified Incident Handler Certification (E|CIH)

I work as an incident response analyst at Sophos Rapid Response in the UK. I have been working in IT and cybersecurity since 2008 and writing about cybersecurity, ethical hacking, DFIR, and OSINT since 2020.

I decided to take the E|CIH course and exam to progress in my career because I had already started working as an incident response analyst (my first year in the role), and I wanted to pursue a course that covered broader aspects related to incident management.

Why Did I Choose E|CIH?

The UK government requires every company offering cyber incident response services to have at least one manager on their team with one of our nationally designated certifications.

The E|CIH v2 maps 100% to this certification, which emphasizes the requirements of incident handlers in real-world situations.

Read More: 312-50: EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker

EC-Council’s new version of the E|CIH is also 100% compliant with the NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework. This is the USA’s national cybersecurity framework, which ensures that a trusted structure and language are maintained throughout the cybersecurity profession.

My E|CIH Experience

I chose to take the self-study training route over attending an in-person training center because I have ADHD, and this option allows me to learn at my own pace and revise things as often as I wish.

What was included in the course?

◉ Official EC-Council E|CIH course materials

◉ Official E|CIH lab access

◉ EC-Council E|CIH exam

It took me around five months to work through the course manual and labs between working and family time (I have three kids), so that was good, as you get 12 months of access to the program.

Considering that I work in the incident response industry, the E|CIH course was in-depth and more difficult than I had anticipated. While it did cross my mind that it might be a little bit easier than it was, I was wrong.

Coursework

The coursework was great and thorough, covering all aspects of incident handling across nine modules:

◉ Module 1: Introduction to Incident Handling and Response

◉ Module 2: Incident Handling and Response Process

◉ Module 3: Forensic Readiness and First Response

◉ Module 4: Handling and Responding to Malware Incidents

◉ Module 5: Handling and Responding to Email Security Incidents

◉ Module 6: Handling and Responding to Network Security Incidents

◉ Module 7: Handling and Responding to Web Application Security Incidents

◉ Module 8: Handling and Responding to Cloud Security Incidents

◉ Module 9: Handling and Responding to Insider Threats

There is a nice flow in each module. It is a comprehensive specialist-level program that imparts knowledge and skills on how organizations can effectively handle post-breach consequences by reducing the impact of the incident, both financially and reputationally.

Lab Time

The lab time was great. You will have access to over 50 labs, 800 tools, four operating systems, and a large array of templates, checklists, and cheat sheets.

I found the materials informative with numerous new tools I was unaware of, some I was aware of, and some I use daily, so it was a good set of labs to get stuck into.

The lab setup was extremely good and takes you through each OS step by step, assuming you have not too little knowledge in networking, setting IP addresses, and such.

I was pleasantly surprised by a few tools and am looking to integrate them into my workflow, which is a bonus. The tools vary depending on the module, and I enjoyed getting familiar with the AlienVault OSSIM, an open-source Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), as I had neither seen nor used it before.

E|CIH Preparation Tips

I pursued the E|CIH because, as I’ve already mentioned, I work in incident response, but there weren’t any other noteworthy courses, so I just joined the course with experience. It probably would have been better to take the C|EH course first, but we all live and learn. I still want to take the C|EH and C|HFI, but I think with the right experience—say, 6+ months in incident response.

You do need to manage your workload like any other course, but I found the E|CIH course content to be thorough and had some fun labs too to work on.

Each module was well thought-out and structured. One tip I would want to give here is take notes. I never did to start with and soon realized it was a mistake; take them, so they sink in better.

Why Do I Recommend the E|CIH?

If you are contemplating taking the E|CIH course, I highly recommend it, in part because many others can be quite expensive. Overall, I am hugely impressed by EC-Council, and everything linked to the E|CIH course and exam. It is evident that a lot of work has gone into E|CIH v2, and it has been a pleasure to work through and get certified.

I definitely recommend the E|CIH for any budding incident handlers or others with an interest in this area. I am happy with the course, content, labs, and exam. This is my first time using the EC-Council platform to pursue any kind of certifications, but I can tell you now, it will not be my last.

Source: eccouncil.org

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Incident Management Best Practices for Seamless IT Operations

It’s inevitable: at some point, most organizations will face a cyber incident. The consequences can be serious, whether it’s a malware outbreak, a phishing attack, or a data breach. That’s why cyber incident management is important for businesses.

Incident management is the process of identifying, responding to, and recovering from cyber incidents (Splunk, n.d.). When implemented effectively, it can help minimize the impact of a security incident and get your organization back up and running as quickly as possible.

Top Incident Management Best Practices to Follow

When it comes to managing IT operations, there is no room for error. Any disruptions in service can have a major impact on productivity and profitability. That’s why you need to have a well-defined incident management process in place for your organization.

Some of the most effective incident management best practices include the following:

1. Create a Clear and Concise Cyber Incident Management Plan

By having a clear and concise incident management plan in place, organizations can be sure that everyone knows what to do in the event of a security breach (HIMSS, 2022). This can help to minimize the damage caused and help restore operations seamlessly. A good cyber incident management plan should include:

◉ A list of who to contact in the event of an incident

◉ A step-by-step guide for responding to an incident

◉ A way to track and document incidents

◉ Training for employees on how to use an incident management plan

2. Train All Staff on the Cyber Incident Management Process

Cyber incident response training for employees is yet another good incident management practice. This is because they will know what to do if an incident occurs, and they will be able to minimize the damage done.

Additionally, when employees have cyber incident response certification, it shows that they are serious about protecting the company they are working for from cyberattacks.

Organizations can train staff by guiding them through each circumstance. Training can also include teaching techniques for cybersecurity awareness and ensuring the staff is familiar with the appropriate protocols (Poggi, 2021).

3. Establish Clear Roles and Responsibilities for Each Team Member

Another best practice for cyber incident management is establishing clear roles and responsibilities for each team member. This helps ensure that everyone knows what they need to do in the event of an incident and helps to avoid confusion and duplication of effort.

You could have one employee responsible for liaising with law enforcement, another for notifying customers and third-party service providers, and someone else for coordinating the overall response.

Alternatively, you might want to have a dedicated incident response team that handles all aspects of the response

4. Make Sure All Cyber Incident Management Tools and Technologies Are Up to Date

Keeping all cyber incident management tools and technologies up to date helps ensure that your organization is prepared to respond to incidents effectively.

Having the latest information and capabilities available to deal with cyber incidents can help businesses better understand their environment and its threats, which can lead to more effective responses to incidents.

5. Conduct Regular Cyber Incident Management Drills to Test the Process

One of the best ways to ensure that your organization is prepared for a cyber incident is to conduct regular incident response (IR) drills. IR drills test the process and procedures that have been put in place to respond to a cyber incident. They also help to identify any weaknesses in the system and allow for corrective action to be taken.

Conducting regular IR drills is a good practice for incident management for several reasons.

First, the incident response team can test their skills and procedures in a safe, controlled environment. This allows them to identify any areas where improvement is needed.

Second, it helps to build team cohesion and unity of purpose. When everyone knows what their role is and how to work together, the response to a real incident will be more effective.

Finally, it raises the level of awareness of the importance of cyber security within the organization. When everyone is aware of the potential for a cyber incident, they are more likely to take steps to protect themselves and their data.

6. Review the Cyber Incident Management Process Regularly

Reviewing the incident management process regularly is a best practice for three reasons. First, it helps ensure that everyone involved in the process is up to date on the latest procedures. Second, it allows for identifying any potential improvements that can be made to the process. Finally, it enables incident management teams to get feedback from each other on their experiences and learnings.

The 5 Stages of Incident Management Process

The cyber incident management process consists of five main stages that organizations should follow:

1. Identification, logging, and categorization: This is the stage where incident handlers first become aware that there has been an incident and begin to collect information about it. This information is then used to decide how serious the incident is and what response is required.

2. Notification and escalation: This stage aims to make sure that the right people are aware of the incident and are involved in the response. This may involve escalating the incident to a higher level of management.

3. Investigation and diagnosis: At this stage, the focus is on understanding what has happened and why. This information is then used to decide what needs to be done to resolve the incident.

4. Resolution and recovery: This is the stage where the problem is addressed so normal services can be restored and any lost/damaged data can attempt to be recovered. This may involve repairing damage, reconfiguring systems, or restoring data from backups (Lord, 2021).

5. Incident closure: Once the incident has been resolved, it needs to be closed off. This involves documenting what happened, and lessons learned so that future incident can be prevented or dealt with more effectively.

Some of these stages may be combined or omitted, depending on the specific incident.

Why Organizations Hire Trained and Certified Incident Handlers

You may wonder why organizations hire trained and certified incident response analysts and why a cyber incident response certification is vital for you to acquire. After all, anyone can learn about incident response and resolution.

However, there are several benefits because organizations are keen on having a team of trained and certified incident handlers. First, employees who have this certification have the knowledge and experience to quickly contain and resolve an incident in case it occurs. Second, incident analysts know how to properly document the incident so that it can be used to improve your organization’s cyber security posture. And finally, trained, and certified incident handlers can provide valuable insights into how to prevent future incidents from occurring.

Overall, organizations find hiring a team of trained and certified incident handlers a wise investment. By doing so, many organizations ensure they are prepared to resolve future incidents quickly and efficiently.

EC-Council’s Certified Incident Handler (E|CIH) certification program has helped many incident handlers to demonstrate their expertise in managing and responding to cybersecurity incidents. Additionally, the certificate has provided many incident handlers with the knowledge and experience necessary to respond to cyber incidents appropriately. 

Source: eccouncil.org

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5 Successful Qualities of Cyber Incident Response Experts

Cyber incident responders respond to cyber incidents, which the Department of Homeland Security defines as “an event that could jeopardize the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of digital information or information systems” (n.d.). These professionals use their cybersecurity knowledge and skills to help organizations mitigate the damages caused by cyber incidents.

In the event of a cyberattack, an incident response team is responsible for containing the damage, investigating the cause of the attack, and restoring normal operations. An effective cyber incident response team comprises individuals with various skills and experience.

Below are five qualities that help make successful cyber incident response experts.

1. They Are Flexible

Cyberattacks can happen anytime, making it essential that response teams react quickly and effectively. Therefore, to be successful, cyber incident response experts must be flexible enough to deal with unexpected tasks or problems.

Cyber incident response experts play a vital role in the cybersecurity landscape. They’re responsible for investigating and responding to cyber incidents and providing guidance on cybersecurity best practices.

For these reasons, cyber incident response experts must be readily available and deeply understand the latest cybersecurity threats and trends. This allows them to quickly adapt to new circumstances and guide organizations on how best to protect against these threats.

Organizations rely on cyber incident response experts to help them recover from cyberattacks and breaches. However, there’s a global lack of incident response planning that’s best illustrated by the fact that:

◉ It takes 214 days to identify a malicious attack

◉ It takes 77 days to contain and recover from an attack

◉ 76% of organizations don’t have an incident response plan

◉ 74% of employers rate the difficulty in hiring skilled incident response experts as “very high.”

According to IBM and the Ponemon Institute’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021, the average data breach cost for organizations is USD 4.24 million. This is a 10% increase in the reported average cost between 2020 and 2021, with the healthcare sector being the most affected (IBM, 2021).

Given the time it takes to contain and recover from an attack, organizations increasingly rely on cyber incident response experts to resolve breaches. While these experts have the know-how to resolve cyber incidents quickly and efficiently, they must be readily available to address incidents as they arise.

2. They Are Collaborative

Successful cyber incident response experts are collaborative. They work with other cybersecurity professionals to resolve cyber incidents; their collaboration allows them to share knowledge and experience and helps ensure that cyber incidents are resolved quickly and effectively.

According to SECUDE (2020), taking a collaborative approach to cybersecurity can lead to the following:

◉ Globally disseminating threat intelligence, which is one of the best defenses against malicious attacks

◉ Providing real-time visibility, which bridges the gap between different departments in an organization

◉ Bringing in diverse expertise, which can help organizations better identify the gaps in their cyber defense

◉ Fostering private-public relationships, which ensures organizations follow government regulations while implementing security measures

Organizations have invested in various tools and security systems to protect their critical data and intellectual properties. Too many cybersecurity teams are monitoring and responding to incidents under assorted individual management.

The successful cyber incident response expert understands the need to collaborate and form an integrated solution among different teams. Failure to do so can leave an organization’s compartmentalized security operations vulnerable and exposed to a breach, especially as threats evolve.

Finally, cyber incident response experts cooperate with law enforcement and other stakeholders to ensure that cyber incidents are handled appropriately. This collaboration is essential to protecting victims’ rights.

3. They Value Upskilling

Cyber incident response is a complex and ever-evolving field. Therefore, certified cyber incident response experts must continually improve their skills to manage cyber incident responses effectively.

These experts typically have a background in cybersecurity, computer science, or a related field. They use their skills and experience to identify cyber incidents, assess the damage, and develop plans to mitigate risks.

Experienced incident response analysts can guide responding to a cyber incident, help coordinate response efforts, and track progress. They’ll need to be able to develop and implement an effective cyber incident response plan.

A strong understanding of cybersecurity concepts and technologies is made possible through certifications like EC-Council’s Certified Incident Handler program, which provides incident handling training through modules that include:

◉ Introduction to incident handling and response

◉ Handling and responding to network security incidents

◉ Handling and responding to web application security incidents

◉ Handling and responding to cloud security incidents

◉ Handling and responding to email security incidents

◉ Handling and responding to cloud security incidents

◉ Handling and responding to malware incidents

◉ Incident handling and response process

◉ Forensic readiness and first response

The value of having incident handler certification cannot be overstated. It’s even more necessary now as the demand for qualified professionals who can appropriately respond to and mitigate security issues grows along with cybercrime.

4. They Isolate Exceptions and Have a Centralized Approach

Cyber incidents are essentially violations or imminent threats of violation of computer security that could harm the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of data or systems. To effectively respond to a cyber incident, isolating exceptions and taking a centralized approach are essential.

By isolating exceptions, cyber incident response experts can identify and contain the problem, preventing it from spreading and causing further damage. Taking a centralized approach allows experts to coordinate their efforts and share information more effectively, ensuring that the response is as efficient and effective as possible.

Many cyber incident response experts agree that one of the best ways to isolate and manage exceptions is to take a centralized approach (Connell, 2014). This means having a central repository for all cyber incidents, regardless of where they occur.

A central repository makes it easier for a team of incident response analysts to resolve cyber incidents. You can easily see patterns and exceptions and quickly respond to cyber incidents.

Additionally, you should maintain a well-documented cyber incident response plan. Review and update this plan regularly, and design it to help you rapidly respond to any cyber incidents that may occur. These steps can help ensure that your organization is prepared to handle cyber incidents.

5. They Implement Post-Incident Measures

Cyber incidents aren’t just technical problems but business issues as well. The sooner you can mitigate them, the less damage they’ll cause. Therefore, it’s essential to take measures after a cyber incident to handle it appropriately and prevent future attacks. Post-incident measures may include the following:

◉ Conducting a review of the incident and implementing security controls

◉ Implementing technical controls such as hardening systems and upgrading software

◉ Improving organizational processes such as patch management and incident response

◉ Developing and implementing an incident response plan

Cyber incident response experts know that simply returning to the status quo is not enough. Instead, it’s necessary to learn from past mistakes and take steps to improve an organization’s overall security posture. By taking these measures, organizations can minimize the impact of future cyber incidents.

Become a Certified Incident Handler with EC-Council

So, what’s your takeaway about what it takes to be a successful cyber incident response expert?

The above qualities, including availability, collaboration, and certification, will get you started. But the most important element of all is experience.

One of the best ways to gain experience is to start your incident handling training. EC-Council’s Certified Incident Handler (E|CIH) program provides incident handlers with the knowledge and skills to respond to and resolve cyber incidents effectively. Get started with EC-Council’s E|CIH program to improve your cyber incident response expertise.

Source: eccouncil.org

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The Importance of Cyber Forensics Professionals in 2022 and Beyond

Cyber forensics professionals are investigators that respond to cybercrime and serious data breaches. Organizations need cyber forensics to answer vital questions such as – what happened, how it happened, how bad it is, and who’s responsible.

A cyber forensic expert uses sophisticated techniques to get to the bottom of each incident. Their investigation is meticulous, focusing on creating a reliable evidence chain. The evidence they produce is admissible in court, which can help settle lawsuits—and bring cybercriminals to justice.

This kind of investigation is essential at a time when cybercrime is skyrocketing. The FBI’s digital unit investigated $6.9 billion in cyber fraud in 2021—a 500% increase in just five years (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2021). The threat is real. That’s why there’s a growing demand for skilled, certified cyber forensics professionals.

What is Cyber Forensics?

Cyber forensics is the discipline of studying digital sources to find reliable evidence of serious data security incidents. A cyber forensics investigation involves looking for clues from sources such as physical devices, network logs, databases, and cloud services. The investigator will attempt to restore deleted data and may even search the dark web for information.

Data integrity is the most crucial part of cyber forensics. If there is any data loss or contamination, it could undermine the whole investigation. That’s why digital forensics analysts always follow a strict process:

1. Identification: Find all data sources that might have relevant information.

2. Preservation: Secure the data to prevent erasure, tampering, or contamination.

3. Analysis: Put all the data together and establish what happened.

4. Documentation: Build a detailed timeline of all known events and actors involved in the incident.

5. Presentation: Summarize the findings in an appropriate format.

Cyber forensics is a vitally important job, and not only in the fight against cybercrime. Digital evidence now plays a role in over 90% of all criminal trials (Yawn, 2015). Justice depends on having access to digital evidence that is reliable, objective, and accurate.

Why is There a Growing Demand for Certified Cyber Forensics?

Businesses are currently fighting for their lives against the constant threat of cyberattacks. Data breaches are expensive, costing up to $180 per individual record compromised (IBM, 2021). A data breach can also expose a business to sabotage, espionage, or extortion.

Responding to security incidents isn’t easy. It can take up to 287 days—over nine months—to identify and repair a data breach (IBM, 2021). During that time, the organization will lose vital data that could help track down the criminals responsible.

To fight back, many companies are hiring extra in-house computer forensics experts or working with forensic cybersecurity consultants. These experts are helping to deal with a wave of new threats, including:

◉ Rapidly changing technology: Sudden changes in information technology infrastructure can create new risks. For example, the switch to remote work during Covid led to a 220% increase in phishing attacks (Warburton, 2021).

◉ IoT vulnerabilities: There are over 13 billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices online (Statista, 2021). Not all these devices are secure, making them targets for hackers. These devices can also serve as hosting grounds for botnet attacks.

◉ Cryptocurrency: Cryptocurrency is hard to trace. That makes things much easier for ransomware attackers and much harder for cyber forensics analysts. $14 billion of criminal activity involved cryptocurrency in 2021, up 79% in 2020. (Chavez-Dreyfuss, 2022)

◉ Accessible hacking tools: Wannabe cybercriminals can now pay to access sophisticated hacking tools. This ease of access means more frequent attacks and more pressure on cyber defenses.

◉ Anti-forensics techniques: Criminals keep finding new ways to cover their tracks. Evolving anti-forensics techniques can make detecting and investigating a cyber-attack even harder.

The average business spends 10% of its annual IT budget on cybersecurity (Deloitte, 2020), most of which goes on prevention. But, when their defenses fail, those companies need cyber forensic professionals to investigate and find answers—fast.

Is Cyber Forensics a Promising Career?

As long as there is cybercrime, there will be a demand for cyber forensic analysts.

Full-time salaries for digital forensics professionals average at around $74,902 (Payscale, 2022). You can also work as a private consultant, which would mean billing clients according to your hourly rates.

You will need strong technical training and IT knowledge to succeed as a cyber forensic professional. You’ll also need the right qualifications (see next section) and experience in cybersecurity.

Most of all, you will need the right personal qualities, such as:

 

◉ Curiosity: You’ll need an insatiable desire to find the truth. A cyber forensic professional will ask questions, chase every lead, and explore every possible data source in the search for clues.

◉ Attention to detail: You’ll need to be able to spot patterns and clues in the smallest traces of data. You’ll also need to be painstaking in following the correct process.

◉ Continuous learning: Hacking techniques are constantly evolving—and so are anti-forensics strategies. You’ll need a voracious appetite for learning about the latest trends.

◉ Strong communication: You may need to present your evidence to non-technical people. Can you explain your findings to executives, law enforcement, or even a jury?

Cyber forensics can be a steppingstone to a senior career in cybersecurity. This path can lead to jobs like security architect or Chief Information Security Officer (CISO).

How to Become a Certified Cyber Forensics Professional

If you think cyber forensics is the right choice for you, then here’s the good news: there’s never been a better time to start.

Employers need cybersecurity people at all levels, from entry-level cyber forensics positions to senior consultants. These positions allow you to get hands-on experience and to see how cyber forensics works in the real world.

Some training options can help make you eligible to apply for vacancies. Here are a few cyber forensic courses to consider:

◉ Beginner: Got an IT background and are looking to pivot to security? Consider a security basics course. The Certified Network Defender program is an excellent place to start. You will learn about entry-level cyber forensics techniques, including risk anticipation, threat assessment, and endpoint security.

◉ Intermediate: What if you have security experience and want to develop your skills? A qualification such as Cyber Threat Intelligence Training gives an in-depth guide to threat analysis. You’ll also learn some of the data-gathering techniques involved in an investigation.

◉ Cyber forensics professional: When you’re ready for a serious career in cyber forensics, you can enroll in a program such as Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator (C|HFI) program. Here, you’ll gain in-depth knowledge about conducting a cyber forensics investigation on any platform and methods for counteracting anti-forensics techniques.

The C|HFI program from EC-Council is the only comprehensive, ANSI accredited, and lab-focused program in the market that gives vendor-neutral training in cyber forensics. In addition, it is the only program covering IoT Forensics and Darkweb Forensics.

Source: eccouncil.org

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Everything You Need to Know About Cloud Forensics

Introduction

Cloud computing has gone from cutting-edge technology to a best practice for businesses of all sizes and industries. According to Flexera’s State of the Cloud report, 94% of companies now leverage cloud computing.

With the cloud in such widespread usage, it’s no surprise that cloud forensics is growing in popularity. One of the most important cloud security best practices have cloud forensic investigators ready after a cybersecurity incident.

Read More: 312-50: Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)

So what is cloud forensics, exactly? Cloud forensics involves applying digital forensics and crime investigation techniques to cloud computing environments. This article will discuss everything you need to know about cloud forensics, including cloud forensic techniques, challenges, and how to become a cloud forensic expert.

What Is Cloud Forensics?

If you’re reading this, you’re likely already familiar with cloud computing: a technology that delivers various on-demand computing services to users over the Internet. These services include applications, databases, servers, networking, and more—all available on a rental or “pay as you go” basis.

Cloud forensics refers to the use of forensic techniques to investigate cloud environments. When unlawful or criminal behavior has occurred using the cloud as a medium, cloud forensics experts use their skills and knowledge to detect the individuals or groups responsible. Cloud forensics encompasses users of the cloud, both victims and perpetrators. For example, a company using cloud servers might be the victim of a data breach or denial of the service incident. Criminals themselves might also use the cloud to launch an attack.

As with other subfields of forensics, cloud forensic investigators must follow strict regulations to ensure their work is admissible in a court of law. This may involve obtaining court orders to search a cloud server, ensuring evidence has not been tampered with, and other necessary precautions.

Cloud forensics jobs are usually listed under titles such as “forensic computer analyst,” “IT security analyst,” and “cyber investigator.” According to PayScale, the median U.S. salary for these jobs ranges from roughly $60,000 to $100,000. These individuals may be employed by governments, law enforcement agencies, and large companies such as banks and healthcare organizations that are common cybercrime targets. They may work in-house or provide their services as external contractors.

There’s no universally agreed upon background necessary for cloud analytics jobs, and each organization will have its own criteria. Most employers look for candidates with at least a bachelor’s degree, although not necessarily in computer science or information technology. Going through cloud forensics training (such as a certification program) is usually essential, but some people can bypass this requirement with enough experience.

How Is Digital Forensics Different from Cloud Forensics?

Digital forensics is a branch of forensics that works with electronic devices and data to detect crimes, examine the paths of criminals, and analyze and preserve evidence for the use of law enforcement and prosecutors.

The domain of digital forensics encompasses a wide range of components in the IT environment: hard drives and other storage media; individual files; Internet and other networks; emails; mobile devices; databases; operating systems; computer memory; and more.

Some examples of popular digital forensics tools are:

◉ The Sleuth Kit (TSK) extracts information from hard disks and other storage

◉ Autopsy, a tool for examining hard disks that provides data on the operating system, owner, users, applications, Internet history, deleted files, etc.

◉ Volatility, an open-source framework for analyzing computer memory

Once these tools have identified potential evidence, digital forensic experts can use a write blocker to securely copy the data to another location, recover hidden or deleted files, decrypt encrypted files, and more.

Cloud forensics can be considered a subset of digital forensics with a particular focus on cloud computing — and, thus, a subset of the broader sphere of forensic science. Many cloud forensic techniques and tools are therefore common in digital forensics. Like digital forensics, cloud forensic experts must work with diverse computing assets: servers, networks, applications, databases and storage, and more.

However, several factors make cloud forensics distinct from its parent field of digital forensics. Perhaps the biggest distinction is that cloud forensic investigators often lack physical access to the investigated systems and environments. This fact significantly affects how cloud forensic investigations are carried out, as we’ll see in the next section.

Challenges of Cloud Forensics

As you can imagine, several cloud forensics challenges are unique to this field. The challenges of cloud forensics include both legal and technical difficulties. The potential issues with cloud forensic analysis include:

◉ Jurisdiction complications: Cloud services are often hosted in different states or countries from the user’s location. Users can sometimes — but not always — choose this location. Google, for example, has cloud servers in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. This can create complications when determining which jurisdiction has authority over the crime.

◉ Instability: In traditional digital forensics investigations, the IT environment is often “frozen” to prevent interruptions or further issues while investigators complete their work. However, this is usually impossible with public cloud providers, which may serve thousands or millions of customers. Instead, the environment remains live and changeable (and therefore, potentially unstable.

◉ Physical access: In some cases, physically inspecting a cloud server can help with forensics. However, this is a challenge with large cloud providers, which enact strict security regulations to prevent unauthorized individuals from entering the premises. In addition, as mentioned above, there’s no guarantee that the cloud server will be physically located close to the investigator.

◉ Decentralization: Cloud providers often store files across several machines or data centers to improve data availability and reliability. This decentralization and fragmentation make it more challenging to identify the problem and perform forensics.

◉ Unavailable or deleted data: Cloud providers may differ in terms of the information they provide to investigators. For example, log files may not be available. In addition, if the crime resulted in data being deleted, it becomes a challenge to reconstruct this data, identify the owner, and use it in cloud forensic analysis.

How to Become a Cloud Forensics Expert

Being a cloud forensics expert can be an exciting and rewarding job. Applying your technical knowledge and experience can help solve crimes and bring the perpetrators of cyberattacks to justice. One pertaining question remains: how do you become a cloud forensic expert?

Obtaining a cloud forensics certification is an excellent start if you want to begin a career as a cloud forensic professional. Cloud forensics certifications prove to potential employers that you have the skills, knowledge, and experience necessary to help investigate crimes in the cloud.

EC-Council offers the Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator (C|HFI) certification to help jumpstart your cybersecurity career. This program verifies that the learner has the necessary skills to proactively investigate complex security threats, allowing them to investigate, record, and report cybercrimes to prevent future attacks.

Taking the C|HFI course and passing the certification exam is the perfect way to show businesses that you have the skills for a job in cloud forensics. Want to learn more about how to become a cloud forensic expert? Check out EC-Council’s page on the C|HFI certification.

Source: eccouncil.org

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What is Vulnerability Analysis, and How Does It Work?

Did you know that 60% of all data breaches were made possible by unpatched vulnerabilities (Willis, V. 2019)? That staggering figure shows why a vulnerability assessment is critical to any cybersecurity strategy.

Read More: 312-50: Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)

There is no denying that every system has vulnerabilities. Detecting them quickly is key to properly identifying, prioritizing, and mitigating them. However, as organizational architecture grows more complex, it’s difficult to fully understand it without utilizing a systematic vulnerability analysis.

Read on to learn why vulnerability analysis is important and how it can be utilized to help your organization overcome its cybersecurity risks.

What Is Vulnerability Assessment?

The purpose of vulnerability analysis, or vulnerability assessment, is to create a structured process for discovering vulnerabilities in a system, prioritizing them, and creating a mitigation strategy. Cybersecurity professionals often use vulnerability analysis alongside other detection methods, such as penetration testing, to better understand an organization’s system and its most significant risks.

Since there are multiple uses of vulnerability analysis, there are many different types of assessments to choose from (Computer Security Resource Center, 2022):

◉ Application assessments to determine vulnerabilities within the web applications your organization uses.

◉ Network assessments that require a review of your procedures and policies to protect you against unauthorized access.

◉ Database assessments to discover configuration issues, unprotected data, and other vulnerabilities within your infrastructure.

◉ Host assessments to reveal vulnerabilities of your critical servers that could impact operations and security if not properly tested and protected.

Most organizations need to run a combination of these assessments regularly. As with most cybersecurity practices, you need to invest time into vulnerability assessments on a routine basis and adjust practices and policies accordingly as an organization’s architecture and cyberthreats evolve.

Vulnerability Assessment Checklist

Even if you’ve conducted vulnerability assessments in the past, staying up to date on the best practices of vulnerability assessment methodology helps you get the most out of the process. As such, here’s a checklist to follow that ensures an assessment is thorough, efficient, and productive (New York State Department of Health, 2022):

1. Define desirable business outcomes in advance: Some organizations make certain processes, such as pen tests and vulnerability assessments, mandatory and routine. That is okay, but desirable outcomes need to be defined before every assessment, or it may not be as productive or impactful as a team hopes. Prioritizing risks, achieving compliance, preventing data breaches, or reducing recovery time are all reasonable goals.

2. Prioritize before you assess: While a vulnerability assessment can help you prioritize risks, you must also prioritize your assets before moving forward. Conducting a thorough assessment can be an exhaustive process, especially for the first time, so you must first assess the most important components. This also means understanding the different types of assessments you can conduct and how to best structure them before you dive in.

3. Prepare for your assessment: Rarely is a vulnerability assessment run with the click of a button. Technical preparation involves conducting meetings, constructing a threat model, interviewing your system developers, and verifying the details of your test environment. Both passive and active vulnerability testing is valuable but knowing when and where to use each VA testing method is essential for success. In addition to knowing your testing options, you need to understand the environment you’re working in and the biggest risks you must prioritize, explore, and mitigate.

4. Review as you go: During the test, you must manually check your results to filter out false positives and prioritize true positives. It would help if you also recorded the steps taken and collected evidence to ensure that the process for getting a given result is fully understood and repeatable, as you’ll need to explore it more closely later.

5. Create detailed reports after each assessment: A vulnerability assessment is only as valuable as the knowledge it provides, so creating a comprehensive account alongside each assessment is critical to ensuring information is remembered, shared, and used to take action. A complete description of all vulnerabilities, associated risk levels, mitigation steps, and remedies should be compiled.

6. Invest in continued education and training: Aside from continuing your education through certification programs, retaining the results and reports of each vulnerability assessment you conduct proves valuable for teaching yourself and others how to better prevent and respond to incidents that may occur in the future. Detailed reports are also helpful in communicating issues to non-technical stakeholders, such as those in the C-suite who need to be aware of significant risks and strategies for dealing with them.

If you stick to these best practices the next time you plan a vulnerability assessment, you’re sure to get a lot more out of the process. Of course, getting to the point where you’re confident enough to conduct a vulnerability assessment takes knowledge and hands-on practice, which is why pursuing further education can help prepare you.

Vulnerability Analysis Tools

Conducting a vulnerability analysis is rarely fully automated, but it’s not completely manual. In most cases, while there will be some hands-on input from a security professional, you’ll also be leveraging various tools to discover vulnerabilities and learn more about them (University of North Dakota, 2022).

Some of the most common vulnerability analysis tools include:

◉ OpenVAS for All Systems: OpenVAS is one of the most far-reaching scanning tools as it covers not only web apps and web servers but also your network, operating systems, virtual machines, and databases. When vulnerabilities are discovered, the risk assessments and recommendations will help you decide what to do next.

◉ SolarWinds for Network Errors: SolarWinds offers a network configuration manager that allows vulnerability testing in areas many other tools don’t cover. By revealing misconfigured equipment on your network, SolarWinds can help you discover missing information about your system and the risks it is exposed to.

◉ Intruder for Cloud Storage: While Intruder is not free, it is a powerful tool for scanning cloud-based storage systems, and the best part is that it monitors constantly and scans automatically, ensuring vulnerabilities are detected as quickly as possible. It also offers recommendations and quality reports to guide your strategy.

◉ Nikto2 for Web Apps: If you’re looking for an open-source tool to help you scan web applications, Nikto2 is capable software that can alert you to web server vulnerabilities. The downside is that it does not offer any risk assessment features or recommendations, so you’ll have to decide what to do with the vulnerabilities that are found.

◉ Nexpose for New Vulnerabilities: Nexpose is another open-source tool that’s completely free to use to scan your web apps, devices, and networks. Plus, since it’s updated with the newest vulnerabilities every day via its active community, you can trust Nexpose to provide a reliable scanning solution. The tool also categorizes vulnerabilities based on risk, allowing you to focus on the most pressing issues.

In your work as a cybersecurity professional, you’ll likely come across all of these tools already being used by an organization or your colleagues. Of course, the list doesn’t stop here—there are dozens of other tools in the market like those listed above and finding the right one for your use case means spending some time familiarizing yourself with them.

Become a Vulnerability Analysis Expert

Whether you’ve conducted vulnerability assessments in the past, architecture, threats, and mitigation strategies evolve every day. That’s why investing in your continued education is essential to ensure you hold the most up-to-date and actionable knowledge.

You can confidently proceed with your next vulnerability assessment by pursuing a training program such as the Certified Ethical Hacker (C|EH) course from EC-Council. Interested in exploring the curriculum?

Source: eccouncil.org

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What Is Cybersecurity Management, and Why Is it Important?

Cyberattacks increased by 50% in 2021, reaching an all-time peak in Q4 as companies experienced an average of 900 attacks per week (Check Point, 2022). Businesses are under relentless assault and can only keep their data safe by investing in a sophisticated cybersecurity management strategy.

Most organizations take cybersecurity management seriously, with businesses spending an average of 10.9% of their IT budget on strengthening their digital defenses (Deloitte, 2020). Many companies appoint a dedicated board member—the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)—to oversee their cybersecurity management strategy.

What Is Cybersecurity Management?

Modern organizations often have complicated IT infrastructures. The typical tech stack includes a mix of on-premises and cloud services, so staff members might log in from the office or home. This complexity can create new attack vectors for cybercriminals and raises new data security risks for organizations.

Cybersecurity management is about creating and implementing a unified data security strategy so that data remains safe no matter how the company’s infrastructure evolves.

The CISO or other senior infosec executive will develop a cybersecurity management strategy that covers everything, including:

◉ Technology: Overseeing the primary security architecture, including hardware and software, as well as assessing any new services for potential vulnerabilities

◉ Infrastructure: Guiding decisions on changes to the IT infrastructure, which involves a balance between flexibility and stability

◉ Personnel: Educating users about security best practices. People are often the weakest link in an organization, but with knowledgeable support, employees can do their part to prevent cybercrime

◉ Incident response: Identifying and resolving issues as quickly as possible, assessing the extent of the breach, and mitigating damage

◉ Business strategy: Working with other senior leaders to deliver a long-term strategy as the company grows while avoiding any increase in cyber risk

Cybersecurity management is about more than just making sure the firewalls are functional; it’s about nurturing a safety-first organizational culture that puts security at the heart of everything you do.

What Is the Importance of Cybersecurity Management?

Cybersecurity is now the number one global business risk. When asked to name their biggest concerns, 44% of business leaders said cybersecurity incidents—more than those who said pandemic (22%) or a recession (11%) (Allianz, 2022).

Why are businesses so concerned about cybersecurity management? For several reasons, including:

◉ Excessive cost of incident response: The average data breach cost in 2022 was $4.35 million. This is an all-time high, up 12.7% since 2020 (IBM Security, 2022).

◉ Slow response to cybersecurity incidents: Businesses sometimes don’t realize they have experienced an attack until months later. On average, it took 277 days to identify and resolve a breach in 2022 (IBM Security, 2022).

◉ Risk of extortion or espionage: Organized criminal gangs target large organizations so they can steal valuable data or demand a ransom. Recent high-profile attacks have shut down the United States’ largest fuel pipeline (Turton, 2021) and Ireland’s national health service. (Harford, 2021).

◉ Reputational damage: People trust businesses with sensitive personal data. If cybercriminals steal that data, it destroys that sense of trust. One study of an e-commerce brand affected by a data breach found that one-third of consumers affected would not shop there again (Strzelecki and Rizun, 2022).

◉ Business stability: Cybersecurity management is a life-or-death matter for most businesses. In 2022, the medical startup myNurse shut down its service after hackers accessed confidential patient records (Whittaker, 2022). myNurse is just one example of the thousands of businesses that collapse directly because of cybercrime.

When cybersecurity management fails, the entire business can fail. Therefore, companies need to hire a talented CISO to avoid the catastrophic aftermath of a cyberattack.

What Is the CISO's Role in Cybersecurity Management?

The CISO is responsible for keeping their company one step ahead of malicious hackers.

This means overseeing operations, assessing risk factors, and implementing policy changes on a day-to-day basis. You’ll work with people from every business function to learn about the data needs in each department and ensure that the cybersecurity management strategy is right for your organization.

A CISO’s typical workload includes:

1. Governance, risk, and compliance

A CISO is responsible for all aspects of data governance, which includes the cybersecurity management team structure. They also oversee the frameworks for assessing cybersecurity risk management and ensure that everything is compliant with applicable laws.

2. Information security controls and audit management

Each organization needs an internal controls framework to help implement data security management. The CISO oversees the technology and best practices that make up such controls. They will also implement an audit program to help identify potential breaches.

3. Security program management and operations

The CISO defines the culture of the entire cybersecurity management team. They are responsible for laying out a mission statement, communicating policy, and ensuring a suitable team structure to deliver the strategy.

4. Dealing with cybersecurity issues

CISOs need excellent technical knowledge to get involved in major cybersecurity issues. This may involve overseeing the response to a data breach or patching a known vulnerability.

5. Strategic planning and finance

Finally, a CISO must deal with organizational issues similar to other executive leaders. This means balancing the departmental budget and working with other leaders to develop a business strategy.

How CISO Training Can Help You Become a Chief Information Security Officer

As a CISO, you’ll have a chance to make a real difference to your company’s cybersecurity management strategy, and you can also expect a healthy rewards package. The average CISO in the United States earns $232,090 as of July 26, 2022 (Salary.com, 2022).

You’ll need an extensive track record in cybersecurity management to secure a position as CISO or another senior infosec executive role. This means having expert-level cybersecurity knowledge, including threat analysis and security architecture. You will also need management skills, including communication, delegation, and creating high-level strategies.

If you’re ready to move into senior leadership, you can level up your career with the Certified Chief Information Security Officer Program (C|CISO) program from EC-Council. This certification builds on your existing knowledge of cybersecurity management and teaches you what you’ll need to know to succeed in executive leadership.

Seasoned CISOs developed the C|CISO program to help you deliver the right cybersecurity management strategy for your company.

Source: eccouncil.org

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Is AI Really a Threat to Cybersecurity?

It is true to say that the introduction of Artificial Intelligence, also known as AI models are a blessing to the IT industry. It has very well connected humans and the natural environment with technology in such a way that no one has ever expected. Machines have got enough power to replace humans. All thanks to AI!!!

But, now the question arises is what is AI (Artificial Intelligence)? If it’s playing an important role in the IT sector then why it’s taking so much time to take over all the security management of the industry? Why do people consider it a threat? Is it really a threat?

What is Artificial Intelligence?

The field of science that is mainly concerned with getting computers to Think, Learn, and Do – all these being performed without any human intelligence is termed Artificial Intelligence (AI). But, only training any computer just on the provided dataset and information and then asking that machine for a valid prediction is generally termed Machine Learning which is the initial phase of any Artificial Intelligent Model. 

A Machine learning model which learns from the data (also past experiences) has been provided. But, using that data when the model is capable of making its prediction whether it belongs to that data or not is termed an AI model. AI models have just upgraded Machine Learning models which after training learn from their mistakes and then backpropagate to rectify the data or the values that were responsible for that wrong prediction. This way the model keeps on learning from the predictions as well and also with the real-world data that it encounters during its further phases.

Just like a human learns to walk or talk just by failing multiple times in his attempts and then eventually becomes the expert in walking or talking. These models tend to become more mature and powerful over time as they keep on learning, keeps on making new conclusions, and guessing the future prediction. There is no doubt that it will take over the world one day as the calculations, the analysis that a machine can perform in a fraction of seconds will take years to get solved via a human.

What is the State of AI Now?

For the best analysis of this question, it’s best to just look around ourselves. We all can notice a drastic change and progress in our surroundings, who is responsible for this? It’s today’s technology, due to this Artificial Intelligence or AI-based machinery only now the productivity of every task has increased by multiple times, the goods are now available much quicker and reasonable rates anywhere over the world. From manufacturing to transportation to development and security every field has been flourished with the introduction of AI-themed products and appliances. But is also true that we humans have not even scratched the surface of AI till now, It still has a lot to discover. We have understood its importance, its use, and its demand, but we still can’t predict how much potential an AI model has. For now, large factories, machinery, robotic arms, and many more are controlled via AI. Today the whole world’s house is being automated using AI-based Siri and Alexa.

But truly speaking it’s not even 10% of what the AI model can serve us. Engineers are working on unlocking much more merits of the Artificial Intelligence model and as the termed machine will automatically become more intelligent and experienced over time. affecting every industry at a scale that a human can just have dreamed for.

Artificial Intelligence in Cybersecurity

If every industry is getting affected by this Artificial Intelligence, then their safety and security are also a major concern because if a model is getting educated for any industry it must be exploring through multiple past, present, and future planned data of that industry and therefore as a machine it’s well predicted that a machine will always have those data in its storage unit, not like humans who will forget any information as per the passage of time. So keeping the data secure and not letting that vital data to any wrong hand is a big responsibility. This is done very efficiently by Cybersecurity companies till now, but a blend of AI in this is also quite new and questionable as well. 

Cybersecurity companies use complex algorithms to train their AI models on how to detect viruses and malware so that AI can run its pattern recognition software and stop that. We can train AI to catch the smallest ever ransomware and isolate it from the system. Considering the strength and potential of AI models, what if AI leads our security system i.e fully automated, quick, and efficient. There will be no need for a passcode, an automatic face recognition system for whoever is entering the department, How about the system which can directly track which person is using the account and the location too, and all his biometrics just in one click, no cyberattacks, no data hacking. Won’t it be amazing? Yes, this is the future, but why not today?

Artificial Intelligence as a Threat

Till now Artificial Intelligence has served a lot in cybersecurity like in credit card fraud detection, spam filter, credit scoring, user authentication, and hacking incident forecasting. Even after serving this much in cybersecurity the role of AI is still limited in their field just because:

1. Implementation of AI in cybersecurity will cost more power consumption, more skilled developers, proper server set up raising the expense of that company.

2. If security is totally handed over to AI, there are chances that hackers introduce more skill models of AI resulting in a much more destructive hacking beyond anyone’s imagination causing a threat.

3. Data provided to AI if altered or guided wrongly will result in false predictions of their models which will serve as a path to the hackers.

4. Every AI model is provided with a large amount of data set to learn and then predict and that data can be helpful for hackers if they can retrieve the data provided to the model via any means.

Future of AI in Cybersecurity

For any country or even organization that matters, data is their real treasure, and no one can afford to lose it anyhow, as the max potential of AI is not defined, and no one can risk their security fully to Artificial Intelligence. Considering the future, yes, the world will be dominated via AI technology, But in a general sense, it can never take over Cybersecurity, as there is no finish line to AI learning skills. With time, it will keep on enhancing which can lead to a path for hackers bringing up more skilled and experienced AI models that will be leading the security. Though AI will be always an important part of Cybersecurity because without it, it won’t be able to keep up with the upcoming technologies for its prevention.

Source: geeksforgeeks.org

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