Can Automation Help with Cyber Skills Shortage?

Cyber security attacks are increasing in complexity, sophistication and frequency. Businesses in every sector including governments have been attacked. Global business and financial entities are looking for better defense strategies as well as the need to keep IT SME’s(subject matter experts) at the ready.

It is ironic that increased global technological advances has produced technical or cyber threat. PricewaterhouseCoopers is reporting that by 2018, over half of British businesses will suffer cyber- attacks.

Companies are working diligently to stay abreast of data breach crimes. Britain’s businesses are being urged to better protect themselves from cyber criminals but they are not alone, the government is researching and testing systems to foil potential cyber-attacks. The U.K. found out that nearly two thirds of large businesses experienced a cyber threat or attack in the past year.

The Guardian reported that chancellor Philip Hammond told them that for six months in 2016, there were 34,550 potential attacks that were blocked both on government and public networks which amounted to about 200 cases a day.

The threats and attacks to UK businesses has reached into the millions with the attacks involving viruses, malware and/or spyware. Recently the Parliament experienced an attack through its e-mail system.

The UK government has created the National Cyber Security Centre which is a centralized organization for cyber security support. Additional research and support is supplied by the Government Communications Headquarters and the U.S. National Security Agency.

The U.K. and its foreign neighbors share the same dilemma, there aren’t enough professional IT security talent to help with this growing threat. What is the solution? What about automation and can it be used to help with cyber skill shortages?

It doesn’t matter what size a company is, automation technology can provide the best solution for businesses to gain greater control over cyber threats. Automation is more affordable, scalable, it can dramatically improve the level of protection for a company, there is no need to outsource, and most importantly it can provide 24/7 protection.

An automated solution like an advanced software program can identify the cyber threat immediately and address it quickly, thus giving businesses greater management control. Since staffing shortage is being experienced around the world, automation technology can help bridge the cyber skill gap, help mitigate damages, and become the first line of defense. Automation technology allows both private and public entities to become proactive rather than reactive.

System IT operators and specialists need to delve into their cyber protection arsenal to protect critical infrastructure from cyber-attacks. Cyber-attack disruptions can lead to damaging downtime, loss of valuable revenue and much more.

Relying only on IT security is not enough because it focuses on protecting data and critical infrastructure needs automated technology for cyber security to guarantee the control of tangible and intangible assets.

To help identify suspicious activity, network automation applications with monitoring abilities are vital but knowledge from cyber security employees is required to help detect wary activity on the network so that they can make quick decisions regarding the strength or weakness of the threat. Professional cyber security personnel must learn how to defend their networks’ vulnerabilities.

To help close the skills gap, there needs to better investments in education for existing security teams, recruit young academics and get the necessary cognitive technology applications to help support IT experts.

It is important to note that cyber security automation will not take jobs away from the IT industry, instead IT professionals can be used more effectively in other areas of cyber breaching and decision making. This type of restructuring can help direct the effort of these professionals, thus getting the best utilization of their time and skills to seek a resolve in a lot less time than previously undertaken.

When we say cyber skills, what are we talking about? Let’s look at some of the skills that cyber experts must attain:

• Cryptosystems and Data Protection

• Cyber Intelligence and Operations

• Cyber-Physical Systems

• Digital Forensics

• Enterprise Cyber Security

• Financial Analysis and Control Systems

• Globalisation and Outsourcing

• Industrial Espionage and Counterfeiting

• Information Risk Management and Governance

• Security Architectures and Network Defence

Overall, physical security managed by IT specialists, involves their ability to retain the integrity of process, approach, and control. They are also responsible for coordinating and managing highly sensitive research and investigations with businesses to be able to understand and work through computer science to identify how attacks from the Internet are accomplished.

What type of automation technology are we discussing? These can include artificial intelligence, text/speech processing, robotics, and cognitive computing or machine learning (the study and construction of algorithms where computers can learn from and make decisions based on data-driven predictions). Do you see how a cyber expert and automation would work very well together?

Cognitive systems can uniquely assist security experts with research and analysis at the blink of an eye. These technology systems under the cognitive computing heading will protect a network’s ability to identify, anticipate and to even out-think potential cyber threats. Automated technology can help extend the cyber experts capabilities beyond that which could be accomplished alone.

Advanced super computers in conjunction with artificial intelligence systems can analyze large chunks of data while simultaneously detecting advanced threats, all in real-time. Using these systems

with assistance from IT cyber experts can give cyber teams time to mitigate the threat.

Automation along with cyber skilled individuals can halt an immediate threas sensed by the systems based on a set of programmable tenets. Cyber security experts can train to become more precise in the application of their skills, as well as to resolve cyber threats in a shorter period of critical time.

It is commonly known that not every threat alert is a cyber-attack. Most of the threats are either harmless or they do not cause any real damage. But, what if your IT experts are busy working through these minutia threats and the real threat slips through?

This is a possible instance where automated response technology can truly make all the difference in the world. Today’s cyber-attacks causes millions of dollars and exposes individual security information. However, it isn’t necessarily predicated on the number of IT SMEs working at the time.

It’s more about having the right tools, knowledge and technology in place to support and enable the staff to be more alert and effective. When automation is introduced along with cyber skills security teams, their partnership can reduce response time from days to minutes to help prevent leveraging further damage.

British government agencies are also testing and researching security automation protocols and tools to support future cyber security risk management. Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre is playing a leading role in investigating all cyber-attacks along with U.K. parliamentary digital security teams

As a nation with some of the best scientists, innovators and professionals, businesses need to think outside the box and support advanced automation within their network systems and continue to train IT teams. As shown above, British digital environments are changing which is good because the world is becoming a more dangerous place that harbors cyber criminals.

To further assist cyber experts is the need for cognitive technology systems to keep networks protected from attacks, to protect data, the infrastructure, our lives and this great nation. The global cyber environment is at its infancy in advanced technologies but we are being rushed into taking these advancements seriously for our everyday security and existence.