Securing the Digital Frontier: How AI Can Revolutionize Cybersecurity for Governments

Governments are often perceived as laggards when it comes to technology adoption. It’s not unusual to see many public offices still using hardware and software that are considerably older than what is popular in the market. To some extent, this is understandable, given the rigorous processes and requirements involved in making expenditure and acquisition decisions. However, this should not be an excuse not to keep up with technological advancement, especially in cybersecurity.

The cyber risks and attacks at present are not the same as the threats of yore. They are increasingly aggressive, complex, and pervasive. Their perpetrators are criminally ingenious and they can be state-sponsored, operating collaboratively to target specific governments, businesses, or organizations. Fortuitously, cybersecurity has a new ally: artificial intelligence. The catch: this ally may also work for the enemy.

Cybersecurity for governments

Before anything, what is cybersecurity for governments?

Is this a real category for cybersecurity or a mere marketing term? There are no established definitions for this term, even from the usual suspects when it comes to IT terminology coining like Gartner and McKinsey. However, security firms appear to recognize the special case of the need to secure government IT, so they are offering solutions that are specifically geared towards cybersecurity needs in the government setting.

There are many reasons why governments are a favorite target of cyber attacks. For one, maintain huge volumes of data that can be valuable to threat actors. Secondly, government offices tend to have weak security controls and practices, which makes them easy targets most of the time. Governments usually lack security proficiency, and it does not help that there is a continuing shortage of cybersecurity talent worldwide. Additionally, disruptions in government operations can also serve as “noteworthy” accomplishments for cybercriminals that are trying to establish their reputation.

As the recent geopolitical conflicts of the past few years demonstrated, state-sponsored attacks are not to be taken lightly. They are concerted, persistent, and sophisticated. Governments need security solutions that are effective but also easy to implement, scalable, and can be integrated with the legacy systems that are still commonly used in government offices.

How different are government cybersecurity needs from others?

Government cybersecurity requirements are usually comparable to those of larger enterprises with a multitude of endpoints, various types of assets, and complex infrastructure. The kind of protections needed in governmental organizations is not that different from those in the private sector. The most common requisite defenses include the following.

• Data security – This is the basic protection required in all levels of government operations. Governments collect and store vast amounts of sensitive data, from information about citizens to defense-related secrets, it is crucial to have the right data protection.
• Network security – All organizations that connect devices and connect to the internet require network security. It prevents threat actors from gaining a foothold in a government office’s network and hinders lateral movement attempts.
• Application security – All organizations that use modern devices use apps. As such, it is a must to have the appropriate application security controls and measures. This ensures that the apps facilitate service, not become tools for threat actors to attack individuals or government institutions.
• Endpoint security – Endpoints refer to all the devices that allow users to connect to the network and use resources or services. A comprehensive endpoint security system is vital for governments, especially because of the tendency of many in government to be careless about the devices they allow into their networks.
• Cloud security – Many governments are already using cloud services, so it makes sense to have this capability. Cloud security ensures that misconfigurations and third-party risks are avoided. This is particularly important for offices that are new to using the cloud or are acclimatizing to their hybrid infrastructure. It is important to have a system that can detect cloud security issues and ensure the protection of data and other assets hosted on the cloud.

How AI helps

Simply put, artificial intelligence helps governments improve their cybersecurity by making it easy to put the right security controls in place. Instead of headhunting top cybersecurity talents, government organizations can turn to AI-powered security solutions that provide comprehensive cyber defenses.

Many modern cybersecurity platforms incorporate artificial intelligence to boost threat detection, mitigation, remediation, and prevention. They can automate various manual processes to speedily detect and address threats. This automation frees up the limited cybersecurity professionals in government offices so that they can focus on high-level tasks that require complex decision-making that may only be relegated to humans.

One of the biggest benefits of AI in cybersecurity is its ability to go over tons of security-related data to contextualize them and reduce instances of false positives, failure of detection, and information overload. AI can set priorities for security alerts and event notifications to make sure that the most urgent concerns are addressed promptly, not concealed or buried under loads of benign notifications.

Another advantage of having AI for government cybersecurity is its ability to undertake advanced behavioral analytics. Instead of solely relying on threat intelligence and security event profiles, AI-backed cybersecurity solutions can scan network activity and establish benchmarks of normal or safe behavior. It can then run advanced behavioral analysis to spot cases of potential malicious behavior, which deviate from the benchmarks. This enables the detection of zero-day threats even if the security system is not yet aware of the new threats.

In addition to behavioral analysis, AI can also run predictive analytics to anticipate future attacks. With the help of the massive amounts of data regularly collected by government institutions and obtained from other sources, AI can look into trends and patterns in cyber attacks, thus helping them prepare countermeasures and plan resource allocations to prevent attacks or cope with the aftermath of a successful attack. AI can generate actionable insights to outwit cybercriminals.

Moreover, AI supports automated incident response. It helps governments swiftly and effectively respond to threats. It reduces the time it takes to detect and address attacks. If attacks manage to penetrate, AI can also guide how to minimize the impact of the attack and accelerate remediation.

Adversarial AI, legacy systems, and other challenges

The problem with AI is that it is not exclusive to cybersecurity use. Adversaries can similarly take advantage of it. This means that AI does not only revolutionize cyber defense. Unfortunately, it can also boost the capabilities of threat actors, as it helps cybercriminals in various ways. AI can rapidly generate new malware to be used in various attacks. It can be used to automatically scan systems for exploitable vulnerabilities. It can also automate attacks and find ways to successfully evade security controls.

Another challenge for government organizations is the continued use of legacy systems. Many still employ devices and software from a decade or more ago. The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) acknowledges this problem, the same with most other governments. However, the problem has persisted and appears unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. Fortunately, there are AI-powered cybersecurity platforms designed for this. They are capable of achieving comprehensive security visibility, even on legacy hardware and software.

Moreover, many governments face the challenge of having limited resources. Not many can afford to implement leading-edge security solutions. Also, the fragmented nature of their operations makes security visibility and management more challenging, plus they do not have enough cybersecurity skills.

One of the most viable solutions to these challenges is embracing AI. It is high time for governments to invest in AI literacy and AI-supported cybersecurity. Artificial intelligence is not a silver bullet or a one-size-fits-all solution, but it provides undeniable benefits not only in threat detection and prevention but also in incident response. It changes the way governments secure their IT assets given the changing threat landscape and the limited resources (including cybersecurity talent) of governments.