It’s no secret that cybersecurity attacks have become heavily automated. While automation is one of the reasons security attacks are becoming unbearable, it can also be used on the more positive side to keeping data and devices protected. After all, it is best to fight fire with fire if you’re expecting decent results.
If used correctly, automation tools can reduce the volume of threats and allow businesses and individuals to react to attacks faster. It is practically impossible to manually defend against an automated attack. That’s why using automation to increase speed and efficiency is crucial when it comes to saving what’s left after a security threat.
Besides improving the threat response strategy, automation tools can be used to predict certain behaviors and prevent security threats before they even take place. With that said, here are three ways automation can be used to improve cybersecurity efforts.
Computer automation plays an important role in data management and collection. It is well-known that a bunch of collected data cannot serve any purpose unless it is organized into actionable steps. Automated data management can be used to predict future security attacks by collecting threat data across all vectors and the entire infrastructure.
After this massive amount of data is collected, it needs to be grouped according to behavior so that the threats that behave similarly are grouped. This can predict the attacker’s next step but it is practically impossible to implement this level of analysis manually. With machine learning and automation, companies can take a much more efficient approach to dynamic threat detection.
Besides detecting suspicious activities, automation in cybersecurity helps respond to threats faster. After a threat is identified, automated systems can send protections faster than the threat can spread, which is crucial for defeating the enemy.
Sending out a full set of protections manually can be a lengthy process, which is why automation is necessary to ensure the protections are sent out before it is too late. Speed and accuracy are two important factors when it comes to stopping a threat from spreading. Since most attacks are automated nowadays, it is practically impossible to respond to them manually.
Last but not least, automation systems can help businesses identify threats and infections before they start to manifest as a breach. A strong automated security system can analyze the data from the network much faster, thus identifying potential threats in no time. This is also difficult to achieve manually because analyzing a network backward and forward in time can take a while.
The cybersecurity trends such as phishing, online scams, and ransomware attacks we’ve seen in 2019 are expected to continue even beyond 2020. Businesses that deal with internet technologies are advised to implement automation in their security systems, as well as keep track of other NIST cybersecurity safety measures to ensure data privacy and full network protection.