Category: Access Management

Big companies have significantly improved the security of the network perimeter, and despite considerable investments in this area, most enterprise networks remain vulnerable at their core. Techniques that have deployed and proved highly successful at defending the network perimeter have not been sufficient for protecting the internal system, because of both scalability and perception issues. Despite this, security practitioners can make significant steps in shielding their internal networks by aligning their tactics with the realities of internal network security.

The following ten tips explain ways to tackle the security challenges of large, active internal networks. Furthermore, since these tips involve defensive tactics, they offer a workable a tactical plan for improving the security of an extended enterprise network.

1. Internal security is different from perimeter security.

There is a stack of difference in the threat model between internal security and perimeter security. Perimeter security defends your networks from Internet attackers, armed with zero-day exploits of standard Internet services like HTTP and SMTP. However, the access a maintenance man has to your network, just by plugging into an Ethernet jack, dwarfs the access a sophisticated hacker gains with scripts. Deploy “hacker defences” at the perimeter; configure and enforce tight but flexible policy to address potential internal threats.

2. Tighten VPN access.

Virtual private network clients are a substantial internal security threat because they position poorly locked down desktop operating systems outside the protection of the corporate firewall. Therefore, be unambiguous about what VPN users can access by ensuring there is a clear policy in place. Do not give every VPN user unfettered access to the entire internal network. Apply access-control lists to limit classes of VPN users’ access to only what they need, such as mail servers or limited intranet resources.

3. Perform due diligence on business partners and build internet-style perimeters for extranets.

Partner networks contribute to internal security challenges. Although highly experienced security administrators know how to configure their firewalls to block MS-SQL, the Slammer worm penetrated defences and brought down networks because companies had given their partner’s access to internal resources without proper risk analysis. Since you can’t control the security policies and practices of your partners so, create a DMZ for each partner, place resources they need to access in that DMZ and disallow any other access to your network.

4. Automate security policy tracking.

Intelligent security policy is the key to active security practice. The challenge is that changes in business operations significantly outpace the ability to adapt security policy manually. This reality demands that you devise automated methods of detecting business practice changes that require reconciliation with security policy. This can be as in-depth as tracking when employees are hired and fired, and as simple as monitoring network usage and observing which computers talk to which file servers. Most importantly, ensure your security policy is not too limiting to impact its day-to-day operational use.

5. Closed off unused network services and ports.

Multiple numbers of servers might be deployed just for delivering email service alone, but a typical corporate network might also have upward of 100 other servers listening on the SMTP port alone. It would help if you audited the network for services that shouldn’t be running. If a server is acting as a Windows file server but has never been used as a file server in a long time, turn off file-sharing protocols on this server.

6. Protect your business-critical assets first.

Perform a complete audit of your network for wireless connectivity, and eliminate rogue wireless access points. It would help if you recognised that wireless network access is a compelling and useful facility, and offer secure wireless access to your network users. You should Position an access point outside your of your perimeter firewalls and allow users to access your VPN through it. The chances of your users trying to install and use rogue access points are eliminated if you already provide wireless access on the network.

7. Build protected wireless access.

Perform a complete audit of your network for wireless connectivity, and eliminate rogue wireless access points. It would help if you recognised that wireless network access is a compelling and useful facility, and offer secure wireless access to your network users. You should Position an access point outside your of your perimeter firewalls and allow users to access your VPN through it. The chances of your users trying to install and use rogue access points are eliminated if you already provide wireless access on the network.

8. Build protected visitor access.

Open access to the internal network should be strictly prohibited to visitors. In many organisations, security administrators and engineers attempt to enforce a No Internet Access from certain areas, like the conference rooms. This policy can force employees to give unauthorised access to visitors from alternative desks areas that are harder to track. To mitigate the chance of this happening, build visitor network segments for conference rooms, outside the perimeter firewalls.

9. Install virtual perimeters.

Hosts will remain vulnerable to attack as long as human beings are operating them. Instead of creating unrealistic goals like “no host should ever be compromised,” make it the intention that no one host gives an attacker complete access to the network if it is compromised. Analyse how your network is used and build virtual perimeters around business units. If a human resources user’s machine is compromised, the attacker should not be able to pivot to other business units, such as IT, for example. So, implement access control between HR and IT. Organisations have experienced network staff who knows how to build perimeters between the internet and internal networks. It’s, therefore, time that these skills are put to use in deploying boundaries between different business user groups on the network.

10. Streamline security decisions.

Network users are a critical ally in the efforts to improve network security. Typical users may not know the difference between RADIUS and TACACS, or proxy and packet filtering firewalls, but they are likely to cooperate if you are honest and straightforward with them. Make the network readily accessible to use for typical users. If users never have bad experiences with convoluted security practices, they will be more responsive to evolving security practices put in place to protect the organisation.

Businesses of all sizes and types are increasingly using cloud computing services in production deployments for business-critical operations. Some of these organisations use cloud services to store and process their most sensitive business data. To gain the security advantages of simplicity and consistency, it is crucial to integrate the identity and access management (IAM) systems in use for cloud-based systems with the IAM protections used in-house. Let’s discuss critical considerations for that integration in this article.

Additionally, cloud technologies offer a promising platform for the deployment of IAM services themselves. When implemented well, cloud-based services for IAM can provide significant benefits, including:

Shorter deployment cycles: Traditional on-premises IAM implementation can run as long as several years. This is because some do not offer returns on investment quickly enough. IAM programs can lose momentum and face cancellation. With the advent of cloud computing, this has begun to change. A cloud-based IAM service deployment can slash implementation time to a matter of months., allowing the programs to demonstrate their benefits faster and meet the shorter datelines companies may have for access risk remediation and system improvements.
Elasticity and dynamic nature of services capacity: A cloud-based IAM service deployment enables an organisation to expand and contract services and right-size computing resources on demand, based on the organisation’s needs. For example, IAM processes such as “Access Review and Certification” can benefit from resource flexibility. There are typically only short periods of peak usage when organisations conduct their reviews and certification of individuals’ access. In a traditional on-premises IAM implementation, companies are forced to buy systems robust enough to handle that peak demand, even though they only need it for a short period. By comparison, cloud-based IAM services can dynamically adjust resources to accommodate these spikes.

Lower total cost of ownership: In a cloud-based IAM deployment, ongoing service support maintenance is handled by a trusted service provider, allowing your organisation to focus your resources on initiatives that support your core business. Cloud licensing models will enable you to only pay for what you use; so, costs are based on your usage of the service. Additionally, the cloud-based model in a hosted arrangement may eliminate the need to procure hardware, facilities, and other core IT infrastructure that is often needed to support the solution.When considering cloud for IAM services, the organisation should carefully determine cloud strategies that are aligned with business needs. These strategies typically involve the following:

IAM cloud deployment models (on-premises/hosted, private, public, or hybrid)
IAM service models (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS)
IAM cloud security and risk management.

IAM CLOUD DEPLOYMENT MODELS

1. Private cloud

Private cloud refers to a form of deployment in which a cloud environment is set up exclusively for a given entity or organisation. As shown in Figure 1.1, this cloud environment may be on premises, meaning that the private cloud deployed within the organisation or may be hosted off-premises at a cloud service provider (CSF) with a dedicated environment for the organisation (resources are not shared with any other entity). Private cloud deployment can fit a wide range of business models. They are an efficient solution when setting up a shared pool of IAM services for a large organisation with several separate business units. It allows a delegation of IAM provisioning and other tasks that are better performed closer to each business unit’s end users. Private clouds are ideal when you need to accelerate innovation and have some large compute requirements with strict control, security, and compliance needs.

2. Private cloud

In a public cloud deployment, applications, infrastructure, and platforms are shared across multiple organisations, and a public medium such as the internet is used to access the cloud service. Amazon EC2 would be an example of a public cloud service. It provides a virtual compute environment over the internet, enabling an organisation to use web service interfaces to launch instances with a variety of operating systems, load them with a custom application environment, manage network access permissions, and run the compute image using as many or few systems as the organisation requires. Public cloud can all or some select layers of enterprise architecture, from storage to user interface. As shown above, in Figure 1-1, public cloud IAM deployments provide an IAM service shared across multiple tenants. A tenant is any application either inside or outside the organisation that requires its own exclusive virtual computing environment. In public clouds, multi-tenants are interactive applications with multiple enterprise end users. The main benefit of public cloud IAM services is the cost savings. Resources are shared with many users, and the hardware the CSP provides is built on a system that makes the most efficient use of it. The organisation doesn’t have some upfront costs or time for IAM implementation for basic functionality as the traditional IAM deployment.

3. Hybrid cloud

Hybrid cloud deployment model is composed of two or more clouds, public or private; or on-premises IAM solutions in combination with off-premises public or private clouds. In both scenarios, at least two unique entities are set up and connected (under common management) by standardised technology that provides data and application between the two.

One of the benefits of a hybrid cloud model is that for organisations that are sceptical about the move to the cloud, it offers a “safer” deployment environment to move IAM services to the private cloud. As the first step in combination with their on-premises IAM services and eventually scale to a public cloud for excellent IAM services once the organisation has a higher degree of confidence in the cloud model. This is especially true for IAM as service processes that involve sensitive identity and access data such as provisioning and certification. Use of a hybrid approach enables organisations to continue to use on-premises solutions while beginning to implement security in the cloud and have the flexibility to move to the cloud on their schedule, instead of adopting an “all or nothing” approach.

There is a common misconception that IAM cloud computing implies an “external” cloud, based on public cloud services. IAM cloud computing is a way of computing, not a physical destination. Most enterprises will benefit from IAM cloud computing within their own data centres, building “private clouds,” and getting there in an iterative process through their existing virtualisation initiatives. When considering cloud deployment models, organisations should choose after careful consideration of business needs and goals. There are three common deployment models:

1. Employ a public to offload time-consuming maintenance tasks
2. Establish a private cloud to become an IAM service provider to your business units
3. Move non-revenue generating functions out of your datacentres

Figure 1-2 depicts the select attributes of the deployment options to summarise the fundamental differences of the models. In the next section of this article, I describe the cloud services models that are typically used in conjunction with these deployments help organisations achieve their business goals.

IAM CLOUD SERVICE MODELS

Cloud-based IAM services can be categorised into three distinct types of cloud service models:

1. Software as a service (SaaS)

SaaS refers to a means of providing business functionality through applications typically running on an externally hosted environment in which the purchaser/consumer pays by usage fee or a monthly fee. These software services usually delivered through the web and require a web browser to access applications (g., web-based CRM). The purchaser does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure, network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application maintenance, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration settings. Hosted IAM services are often provided through the SaaS model. For example, within the IAM process domain, “Enforcement” and “Review and Certification” domains provide additional benefits based on the predictable nature of resource usage. A cloud-based IAM solution for these process domains can provide resource flexibility by adjusting resources to accommodate anticipated peak usage demand (e.g., annual or quarterly review cycles).

2. Platform as a Service (PaaS)

According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), PaaS is “the capability provided to the consumer to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquired applications created using programming languages and tools supported by the provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or storage but has control over the deployed applications by possibly application hosting environment configurations. PaaS focuses on everything underneath the application layer, including the underlying platform and some components of infrastructure. IAM deployments in the PaaS model will seek to share resources at the software platform level will have more transparency and control in comparison to the SaaS model.

3. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

IaaS refers to a service model that provides a hosted environment wherein a buyer can purchase infrastructure capacity that can be rapidly provisioned and deployed according to need. This may be useful in IAM deployments where the organisation seeks more control and transparency over security and availability of capabilities.
A cloud-based IAM service model should be aligned with your organisation’s target state business scenario and IAM process, protected resources and type of targeted user population. Common business scenarios within these IAM process domains are the following:
Employee access to external applications (both traditional hosted and cloud-based hosted business applications)
Employee access to internal applications
Business to business partner access
Consumer access to internally hosted and externally hosted services.

As shown in Figure 1-4, for each of these scenarios, protected resources can include SaaS applications (Google Apps, Office 365, etc.), and traditional on-premises applications.

For example, an organisation may choose to implement a shared authentication service for its cloud-based applications and on-premises applications to provide its employees with a seamless user experience across applications. Another example would be that an organisation can provide an access review and certification process as a cloud-based IAM service and the results of the review and certification may feed into an internal access de-provisioning process.

IAM CLOUD SECURITY AND RISK MANAGEMENT

A primary inhibitor of widespread adoption of cloud-based IAM service models is a concern for the security of applications and sensitive data that may need to reside in the cloud. For cloud-based IAM services to become a vital part of the IT enterprise portfolio, providers need to implement adequate security controls for sensitive enterprise data and applications. Cloud-based IAM service providers have made significant strides in addressing these concerns through their internal controls and service provisioning strategies. The purchasing organisation’s internal controls must augment the service provider’s security and privacy protections and validated further by that organisation’s third-party risk management program.

The fundamentals of protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information are not different in cloud-based services. When using a cloud environment, organisations must understand the risks to their systems and data. Asking some fundamental questions to your organisation’s CSP is a good starting point. Typical questions to ask:
Where will the organisation’s data be located?
Who will have access to the organisation’s assets and data? How will the organisation’s systems and data be secured?
What is being monitored and logged?
What evidentiary reporting will the CSP provide to enable compliance?

Regardless of the deployment and service model used, cloud computing creates new IAM challenges that must be addressed. Management of virtual machines within the cloud requires elevated rights that when compromised may give attackers the ability to gain control of the most valuable targets in the cloud. Such rights also provide the attackers with the ability to create sophisticated data intercept capabilities that may be difficult for cloud providers to detect promptly. The risk of undetected data loss, tampering, and resultant fraud can be magnified unless controls are in place.

CSPs should have documented processes for their IAM practices. This includes both physical and logical access environments. Traditional vendor risk management practices will apply for physical access to the hosting environments (background checks, employment status, hosting company location, roles and responsibilities, etc.) On the logical access side, the flexible and dynamic nature of virtual environments introduce new challenges as virtual machines can be moved, copied, or important configuration settings can be modified easily. For this reason, automated security controls at the hypervisor level are necessary. For example, CSPs must implement privileged access management (PAM) solution at the hypervisor level. Organisations should take steps required to understand the controls CSPs have implemented around each hypervisor administrator identity. Organisations considering a cloud-based IAM service model should tailor security controls to the type of cloud deployment, service model, security requirements for IAM service, and confirm that CSP can meet these requirements. Can the cloud service provider security controls in compliance with the organisation’s security policies for on-premises solutions? Can the organisation still operate its IAM security process if one or more parts of the cloud-based IAM service become unavailable?

CONCLUSION

Both my research and experience working for large enterprise organisations indicate that organisations that turn IAM into an explicit business enabler rather than a cost centre will create competitive advantage. By offering cloud-based IAM services around the six IAM processes of request and approval, provisioning, enforcement, (authentication and authorisation), review and certification, reconciliation, and reporting and auditing, the IT security organisation become and IAM CSPM to the rest of the enterprise.

The first and foremost thing is to know what DNS is and how it works? Let me explain to you in simple words. The Domain Name System (DNS) has a secure link with modern network connectivity. Internet users can access content online through domain names like twitter.com. As we know, Web browsers interact through IP (Internet protocol) addresses. DNS translates domain names to IP addresses so browsers can load Internet resources. Many DNS related cyber-attacks involve malware/ransomware, which steals and transfers data out of organizations.

Unfortunately, Cyber-criminals use DNS to carry out attacks and take advantage of vulnerabilities in the domain name system. There are many ways cybercriminals exploit the unique properties of DNS and damage the organization’s reputation and profitability. DNS attacks can cripple an organization due to failures in DNS security. To prevent these attacks, you need to understand how DNS attacks work from Inside Out and Outside-in attack. Both are different from each other. The focus in this article is how to defend against inside out DNS attacks.

1. How DNS-Based Attacks Work from the Inside Out

Hackers use bugs and plant them on an organization’s servers to send information out via DNS query responses. Malware exploits are the most common example of DNS attacks. Malware exploits are inside-out threats that usually commit a crime for money by criminal groups that combine the hierarchical organization of legal business with the terrorist networks. These criminals also used exfiltrating data malware to get confidential information such as customer credit card numbers and market it to lesser criminals. Therefore, it is essential to take proactive actions to prevent attacks that harm the organization’s brand reputation and violate criminal law. Now, I am going to share how to defend against these DNS attacks.

2. How to Defend Against DNS Attacks

Indeed, DNS attacks are not suitable for an organization’s growth. Most targeted sectors of DNS-based Inside Out attacks are the financial sector, telecom sector, and media. Mostly these sectors are hit by the highest number of brand damage. Due to the theft of sensitive information, companies bear the highest costs of an attack. Therefore, it is very much essential to fight back against these attacks to protect the organization. Whenever these attacks hit companies, they turn off affected processes, disable affected applications, and shut down the business services for a while. Companies must take proactive approaches to prevent these attacks or predict the attacks before they happen. There are specific ways by which you can avoid the DNS attacks.

3. Keep DNS resolver private and protected

Organizations that are running their resolver, they should keep ‘their usage restricted to the users only on their network. By doing this, you can prevent your cache from being poisoned by hackers. By using the measurement Factory’s online tool, you can check for open resolvers on your network.

4. Build Protections into your DNS software

To prevent the DNS attacks, you must build protection into the DNS software to protect the cache poisoning. For example, add variability to outgoing requests that make it harder for a hacker to get the bogus response accepted. Popular ways of doing this are; using a random source port instead of UDP port 53. You can also randomize the query ID. It is randomizing the casing of the letters of the domain names that are sent out for resolution.

5. Implement internal threat intelligence

It is essential to implement internal threat intelligence to protect an organization’s services and confidential data. The matter of the fact is Real-time DNS analytics helps to detect and prevent advanced attacks like DGA (Domain generation algorithm) malware and zero-day malicious domains.

6. Ensure security Compliance

To combat DNS attacks, a user needs to integrate DNS with IPAM (IP address management). In network security composition processes that can help to automate the management security policies, keep the system consistent, and auditable.

7. Control DNS Unique traffic visibility in your network security ecosystem

To prevent DNS attacks, implement real-time behavioural threat detection over DNS traffic. It ensures that qualified security events sent to your Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) software. It helps SOCs accelerate remediation.

8. Manage your DNS server securely

When it comes to user’s authoritative servers, the organization needs to decide whether to host them or have them hosted at a third-party service provider. Most organizations prefer to organize and manage their DNS by themselves. Because they fully understand that their security interest is more reliable internally, rather than with a third-party provider. If your organization has skills to host and manage its DNS, then you do not need to engage the services of a third-party DNS provider. However, if your organization lacks internal DNS skills, then it is ok to seek the services of a reliable DNS provider. If this is the case, perform due diligence on the potential providers before engaging their services.

9. If you host yourDNS servers

Mitigate the risk of a DDoS attack: The DNS servers are vulnerable to a DDoS attack that affects system availability, which thwarts one of the core tenets of cybersecurity CIA (Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability). It is essential to ensure that a DDoS mitigation service protects the server. It helps to eliminate the unwanted traffic and provide bandwidth to ensure that your DNS servers remain reachable or not.

Avoid Known vulnerabilities: whenit comes to running your name servers, then it is essential to keep them up to date to prevent known vulnerabilities. One of the most used security tools is a patch management system. You know what? A hacker can send DNS requests with spoofed sources to your servers by which your servers respond by sending unwanted traffic to the spoofed source. Therefore, it is essential to keep them updated to prevent your name servers from being used in reflection attacks on third parties.

DNS software used a technique called Response Rate limiting to avoid the extensive responses to the same spoofed source in a limited time. Using this technique makes your server secure from hackers.

Restrict Zone transfers: To prevent hacker attacks, you need to use a hidden primary master name server. Often slave name servers request a zone transfer, which is a copy of part of the master server’s DNS database. The zone contains a ton of information that could help a hacker to understand the topology of your network. Therefore, you need to ensure that your name servers are configured only to carry out zone transfers to the specific IP address of your slave DNS servers.

Keep monitoring your name servers: You should actively monitor the visibility of your server, what are the status and any changes made or not. Keep watching unusual behaviour in your DNS activity log. The quicker you detect the unfamiliar or suspicious activity, there are chances that you may be able to thwart the potential hack of your Domain for nefarious acts.

Use PKI to protect your DNS server. You need to use a digital certificate to authenticate your Secure Shell (SSH) session whenever you log on to your DNS server to make changes. This communication is encrypted as it traverses your network, and the chance of interception is zero.

Apply specialist DNS appliance: To minimize attacks on your DNS servers, shutdown unwanted services, or unneeded ports. It is essential to know that DNS appliances offer hardened operating systems with automatic updates that help the organization to protect it from denial of service attacks.

10. If Your Domain managed by a registrar?

Whenever a third party manages your Domain, then it is essential to satisfy yourself that your online operations and security measures work efficiently and appropriately.

Use Multi-factor authentication. The use of MFA further strengthens any authentication to your DNS servers, which will require a second authentication factor such as a token, mobile device for OTP, etc.

DNS change locking. Most registrars enforce specific security processes before changes are carried out on the DNS settings. Let me give an example; a registrar may call a particular number to get verification from your organization before carrying changes to its DNS servers. It provides some assurance that no changes can be made to the servers unless someone in the organization authorizes it.

IP-dependent logs in Registrars offer a range of IP addresses from which you can log in to your systems. It does not protect insider threats, but it helps to keep you safe from outside-In attacks.

Use DNSSEC technology: DNSSEC allows your record signing at the authoritative DNS server with public-key cryptography. It is designed to protect applications from using manipulating DNS data like hackers’ created DNS cache poisoning. DNSSEC signs all confidential information within its protected zone.

11. The Defense Strategies of DNS

In this segment, I am going to elaborate further on DNS defence strategies by which an organization can protect their DNS server(s) from attacks includes;

Water Torture: It is also called pseudo-random subdomain attacks. It bombards DNS resolvers with legitimate domains followed by random labels that force the DNS to work harder or challenging. Therefore, you need to block fake zone query, Limit FQDN structure, Limit FQDN query rate. Examples: attackers sending non-existent subdomain requests to an Authoritative Name Server for a specific domain. These malicious requests consume the resources on the name server and significantly slow down the responses for legitimate claims. Ultimately, users are not able to reach your web application. Therefore, Authorities need to install Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM), which helps to detect and prevent system DoS and DDoS attacks. 

NXDomain: By consistent request of Non-existent domains (NXDomains), the hacker affects DNS resolvers and servers to become overwhelmed. So, you need to limit the Xdomain response to prevent the attacks.

Query Flood. A multitude of queries flood either attack on the DNS resolver or the authentication servers. DNS Query Flood is a kind of DDoS attack that belongs to application attacks. Example: the attacker sends a succession of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets to a DNS server to exhaust server-side assets such as memory or CPU. By this, the attack prevents the server from direct legitimate requests to zone resources. Relying on UDP protocol makes the packet’s information accessible to spoofing (IP, data size, etc.). This attack hard to distinguish from legitimate one and hard to mitigate. To prevent the attacks, you should limit queries rate by source spoof check.

Malformed DNS query: This kind of queries force the DNS to complete additional processes and use other resources. In this case, you need to focus on the L3-L7 RFC check to prevent unwanted queries.

DNS reflected Amplification: DNS is all about the queries that possibly makes it an ideal target for reflected attacks. The attacker leverages the functionality of open DNS resolvers to overwhelm a target server with an amplified amount of traffic, rendering the server and its surrounding infrastructure inaccessible. Due to the high amount of traffic generated, the infrastructure surrounding the server feels the impact. The Internet Service Provider or any other upstream infrastructure providers may not be able to handle the incoming traffic without becoming overwhelmed. As a result, the ISP may blackhole all traffic to the targeted victim’s IP address. Protective services like Cloudflare DDoS protection, are mostly preventative infrastructure solutions. Therefore, you need to block the weaponized DNS resolver list, Drop UDP fragments, and restrict UDP pack size over 53.

Spoofing:  It is a hacker attack in which a program successfully identifies as another server or Domain by falsifying data, to gain an illegitimate advantage. An attacker spoofs the IP address DNS entries for the target website and replaces them with the unauthorized IP address under their control. They create files on the server with names matching those on the target server. So, to prevent this attack, users need to focus on UDP and force to TCP challenge. 

CONCLUSION

DNS-Based Attacks from the Inside Out are a common issue that organizations face; therefore, it is essential to know How to DEFEND Against Them. DNS security is critical because failure in DNS can harm the organization. The attackers actively find ways to exploit the DNS protocol and the company’s DNS infrastructure for multiple benefits. These attacks are prevalent, but they are not getting the attention they deserve. This article offers practical ways by which an organization can prevent Inside-Out DNS attacks to limit the disruption to business services and curtail financial losses.

In the field of technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) play a vital role. Both are ways to solve the problems in different applications and industries like reduce street traffic, improve online shopping. It makes life easier with voice-activated digital assistants, prevents hacker attacks, and much more. The role of AI and machine learning is increasing in the real world, where the threat to Cybersecurity is a big issue. Therefore, it is essential to understand what artificial intelligence exactly is? How are they helping security operations to stay ahead of hacker attacks? In this article, I answer these questions so that you clearly understand the impact of AI on Cybersecurity.

1. What Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning exactly is?

Artificial Intelligence is a field of science that has a significant focus on finding solutions to resolve complex issues. By taking artificial intelligent decisions similar to or equal to human decision making. The Artificial decisions based on Algorithms and related mathematical calculations that assist the software to make real human decisions. Initially, it is complicated to replace the human brain with software. Machine Learning is a scientific study of algorithms and statistical models by which computer systems perform a specific task. It is the application of artificial intelligence (AI) that provides the ability to the system to automatically learn the programs. The primary focus of ML is to develop computer programs that can access data and use it to learn for themselves. It is closely related to computational statistical models and algorithms that focus on making predictions about using computers. My main objective is to tell you about the role of AI in Cybersecurity and how to stay ahead.

2. What is the role of AI in Cybersecurity?

Let me tell you first what Cyber Security is? It is the security measures taken to prevent cyber-attacks in the virtual world. Cybersecurity is all about protecting online data from attacks. In short, it is a shield on sensitive networks to protect the data and restrict unauthorized access. It is also the confidential data under the protection of Cybersecurity teams in large-scale financial institutions and government. The sensitive data needs cybersecurity protection from cyber-attacks. The Ransomware, Phishing, Malware, Data breach, and Spying are some of the top cyber threats that hackers used to steal sensitive and valuable data from the network. To prevent these attacks, users adopt proactive approaches like Artificial Intelligence systems. AI provides innovative ways to enhance Cybersecurity and technologies designed to protect the networks from hackers or unauthorized access and prevent damages to the information present in the network.

In the world of technology, Artificial Intelligence used efficiently in analyzing an extensive range of data,provides timely solutions. The most exciting thing is with the rise of technological inventions, Artificial Intelligence (AI) earnsits place in Cybersecurity.

3. Prevent Cyber-attacks

Simple identification of a security threat has not enough capacity to help a website or a virtual platform to prevent cyber attackers. AI can be widely used to stop cyber-attacks in different ways. Anyone in charge of the website must think like a hacker to prevent a cyber-attack. AI think like hackers and acts to break the attacker codes. A group of hackers uses different techniques and methods totarget a website. They keep an eye on the target website and identify the weaker point to entry to launch an attack. Hacking use malware and hacking tools to hack a website or security codes. AI helps websites to keep away from Cyberattacks and hackers and phishing.

4. Real-Time Security mapping

AI works faster than the human brain when it comes to making calculations and making data-fed decisions. Compared to a Human-based security monitoring system, an Artificial Intelligence system is the best and efficient security system. AI statistically tells every 4.2 seconds when malware is present. It is hard work for humans to diagnose and eliminate cyber threats from bad actors. AI-powered Cybersecurity system monitors the websites in real-time and fights against threats as they occur.

5. Minimize human involvement in Cyber Security

Operationally critical websites need a high-security system to prevent Cyber-attacks from unauthorized bad actors. AI can detect and combat attackers without any human involvement. AI algorithms are designed by humans to analyze the micro-behaviors in a virtual world and monitor malicious activities to identify the attacks before it occurs in the system. Artificial Intelligence cybersecurity systems make predictive analytics that provides a practical approach to detect hacker activities. The AI-Powered system automatically changes preferences and remote networks that ensure data protection.

6. Help Security Operations to Stay Ahead of threats.

AI is all about the machine learning process in which software or the computing system collects data from the source for observation and learning. It is a fact that AI is under development stage and entirely rely on the cybersecurity system. But we also cannot ignore its potential of getting ahead of cyber threats. It prevents attackers from exploiting vulnerabilities that harm the systems. You can also use VPN to protect the data and strengthen the security system.

7. Assist Cybersecurity experts

Without any smart computing help, identifying cyber-attacks in real-time is an impossible task for security experts. AI takesa smart decision in the cybersecurity system by which professionals can understand the issue and make faster security decisions. The AI security system can scan a log of many entries for potential threats that’s impossible for a human team to understand.

8. Secure large-scale platforms

The AI system can is used for login and password-protected areas where biometric login is applied. You can strengthen the system by implementing an AI system based on scan fingerprints, retina image, and palm prints that provide secure biometric login access. Large cybersecurity firms strive hard to establish patterns through an AI-powered system to protect sensitive data. It can collect a vast range of data automatically from different studies, news, articles. After collecting data, you can use it with Natural Language processing that helps to detect threats and malicious activities. Large-Scale platforms implement an AI-powered system that can create a framework that allows access to global authentication and prevent cyber-attacks.

9. Types of AI applications used in Cybersecurity

AI application depends on the human imagination, and which kind of application it wants to examine. Below are AI application use cases that you can explore.

• Fraud detection
• Spam Filter Application
• Cybersecurity Ratings
• Botnet Detection
• Network Intrusion Detection and prevention
• Credit scoring and next-best offers
• Secure user authentication
• Hacking Incident Forecasting

10. Limitations of AI use in Cybersecurity

A critical issue that organizations need to understand, whether it is small or big, is AI/ML cannot do causation. That means It cannot tell you the reasons why something happened. As we know, the critical component of Cybersecurity is to understand the reasons why attacks frequently occur to damage the security code system. To build and maintain a Cybersecurity system, companies would require a considerable amount of resources like memory, data, and computing power. It is often not a cost-effective option to fully protect the data from hackers. AI are systems trained through a vast range of learning data sets. Therefore, cybersecurity experts need to get many different data sets of malware codes, non-malicious codes, and anomalies to obtain accurate data sets. This process requires time and resources that is harder for companies to afford.

11. Solutions to AI limitations

There are some solutions to AI limitations. The organization should follow these solutions as a cybersecurity strategy.

• You should employ a cybersecurity firm with experts who have experience and skills to handle the security system efficiently and effectively.
• Your cybersecurity team must test your systems and networks frequently for identifying any potential gaps and correct the issue(s) immediately.
• You need to install a firewall and other malware scanners to protect your systems from hacker poisons and keep updating anti-virus scanners regularly.
• Use filters for URLs to block the nasty links that carry potential viruses or malware.
• You should monitor outgoing traffic and use exit filters to block this type of traffic.
• Frequently monitor the cyber threats and security protocols to get information about risks that you should manage to develop robust security protocols accordingly.
• Regularly audit both hardware and software to make sure the system is functioning correctly or not.

These points help to mitigate various risks associated with cyber-attacks. Organizations should work with the cybersecurity teams and make cost-effective recovery strategies to fight against hackers’ attacks.

CONCLUSION

As we know, every small or big organization has a massive amount of confidential data that organizations put on the networks and online systems for easy access. The data is stored in a system and restricted to unauthorized persons. Unfortunately, the data can be attacked by bad external actors. These bad actors can hack the system and extract sensitive information to harm the brand reputation and demand ransom money from your company. The amount of data could be personal or financial information, intellectual property, or any other significant data which if it is exposed, the consequences would be costly. This kind of situation only happens when a user has insufficient cybersecurity awareness training. The purpose of Cybersecurity is to detect data theft and cyber-attacks before data get exposed or stolen. Various agencies and organizations explore ways to deal with such kind of challenging situations by Implementing Artificial Intelligent (AI) in their cyber risk operations. The AI with Cybersecurity reduces pressure on humans by detecting interruptions promptly and help in mitigating the attacks. Yet, AI is a useful tool that combats against cyber attacks or threats; an AI is the best solution that enterprises widely used as security strategies.