How to Ensure Cybersecurity With AIOps

AIOps (AI for IT Operations) within the IT department can only benefit IT is a common misconception. Instead, it helps several other departments too. Right from network operators to security teams, AIOps tools have something for all. Network operators identify network performance issues through an AIOps platform, while security teams need to be proactive about cybersecurity. In today’s times, when the entire world is in the grip of coronavirus pandemic, cyberattacks have multiplied across the globe and costed huge losses to businesses. This makes it even more important for businesses to save their critical data, devices, internet, and the infrastructure.

AIOps helps the cybersecurity department to be agile, intelligent, and vigilant towards data security and threat detection. Using AIOps tools, the security team at your organization can accomplish a wide range of key tasks, ranging from observation to engagement to acting on threats. But the question is how an AIOps platform enables quick identification and resolution of security issues.

Let us begin with the basics first.

What Is Meant By AIOps?

AIOps can be defined as the way the IT team manages data and information from an application environment, here, using artificial intelligence. AIOps platforms use machine learning, big data, and other advanced analytics technologies to, directly and indirectly, boost IT operations with personal, proactive, and dynamic insight. These platforms enable the parallel use of multiple data sources, real-time, deep, and presentation technologies, as well as data collection methods.

The Working of an AIOps Platform

How Does AIOps Aid Cybersecurity?

Speed and Device Visibility

Speed matters the most when we talk about security. Gain an edge in catching cybercriminals and preventing cyberattacks by identifying the source location of a cyberattack and when it occurred. AIOps platforms use collected streaming network telemetry data. It is through this data that they can auto-discover, classify, and inventory devices. Besides, they can also reach for all wireless, wired, and IoT devices communicating in the cloud or on the corporate network. Collected deep packet inspection (DPI) and other telemetry data can be used to plot device communication over a period. In case device communication becomes abnormal and its behavior goes beyond an AI-defined threshold, the security administrator receives an alert.

AIOps can also use device classifications to check if devices critical to your business are connecting to the right virtual LAN or a wireless service set identifier. Network segmentation, being a critical aspect of edge security, AIOps tools quickly identifying connection problems is highly desired.

Threat Intelligence

Analyzing threat intelligence is a part of AIOps. In the case of threat intelligence analysis services, threat reports are produced for the security control system. Most of the AIOps tools integrate with security information and event management (SIEM) and security orchestration, network firewalls, automation, and response. These external security tools, combined with AIOps traffic behavioral analysis, can better monitor a wide range of threats.

AIOps for Security Admin

Automation within artificial intelligence is important, but human involvement is much required to use AIOps platforms for the purpose of security. You need to tell the AI within AIOps which services, apps, and other resources are business critical. As you fine-tune these tools beyond the default automated discovery, there is an effective categorization of network components for behavior analysis.

Besides, recognizing key data flows ensures the AIOps platforms understand what security events are more important than others. AIOps provides comprehensive information on the threat, its effect, and steps that should be done to contain it. But security administrators need to respond to an alert, investigate it, and take requisite steps towards remediation.

AIOps can even be set up to automate a response, yet the administrator may need to intervene. If the recommended remediation steps fail, the admin will depend on other ways to conduct root cause analysis and eliminate the threat.

Remember while AIOps can help automate a few of the IT security tasks, there is a long way to go before we don’t have to contract or employ the appropriate level of personnel.

AIOps for Other Departments

Though in a few cases, it is important to keep sensitive data and security information as protected as the security team can, it would be advantageous for network, application, and server teams as well as department leaders to know of an ongoing threat. The threat may be challenging the performance of the service or application under attack. You, of course, don’t want these teams to waste time troubleshooting a performance issue that already has a well-known root cause.

Are You Using AIOps Tools?

Opening an AIOps platform to all teams creates avenues to drive effective inter-departmental communication. Talking from a security aspect, customized dashboards can be built to offer non-security teams a glimpse into current threats. Dashboards can provide for the true level of communication and there are no chances of leaking or compromising any sensitive information.