Hacking attacks are on the rise today. As a result, data experts (i.e., data scientists) are putting more effort into improving cyber security. A news report recently stated that the rise of AI has also raised cyber risk.
Why Data Experts are Becoming More Involved
At a conference held in India, several data scientists noted that cyber security is no longer just an IT job — cyber security is now also a data science job.
AI makes data collection and analysis more efficient, but it also helps hackers develop better attacks.
So if you deal with data in any business environment, you now need to think about the security aspects.
Dr. Sheng Lung Peng of Taipei University mentioned that they are using advanced machine-learning and deep-learning methods to secure their critical systems. He mentioned securing IoT devices, cyber-physical systems, and even the personal devices that employees bring to work.
Data professionals are engaged in three areas:
1. Building Smart Protective Systems
Data scientists are assessing models that can anticipate and stop attacks before they occur. For instance, they are running diversion attacks on smart energy systems to understand how to stop them from impacting energy production.
2. Understanding User Behavior
They also try to understand how people use data, what actions they take that are unsafe, as well as what habits are unsafe.
This allows data scientists to design safer, more user-friendly systems.
3. Designing Systems that are Resilient
They also talked about something called Phoenix Dynamics. An example could include designing systems that will recover from being attacked in an extremely resilient manner. Phoenix Dynamics is a representation of a mythological bird that rose from the ashes.
A Cause For This Shift
If data scientists enter the action of assigning themselves to cyber security jobs, we will be able to count of better, and stronger protection. They will apply skills using, AI, statistics, and predictive/tendency tools — things that can shine a light on hidden attacks, or attacks your typical security tools cannot identify.
This is a clever and contemporary method to prevent hackers.
In My Opinion
I think this is really beneficial.
Data scientists already understand a fairly significant amount of data work.
If they apply that knowledge and in particular, protect us from cyberattacks, the internet will become more secure and improved data security methods can save money, health, and life.
If I owned a tech company, I would certainly want data scientists to work with security experts.
Concluding Thoughts
Sadly, all these hacking events are rising in frequency everywhere, so data scientists are designing new models, studying human behaviors, and employing systems that remain strong and intact post-cyberattack.
So, a new line of defensive efforts will improve cybersecurity.
I'm curious how these data-driven and shared initiatives will lead to future defense protections!