Information means power, but when there is too much uncategorized information, it only means clutter. Automatically collected data from IT systems requires automatic processing and displaying the results in a C-level, user-friendly overview, with the possibility to investigate causes. This is where the AI platforms and data science come into play.
IDC estimates the growth of the Global AI Market in 2021 to 16.4% year over year in 2021, to $327.5 billion. “By 2024, the market is expected to break the $500 billion mark with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.5% and total revenues reaching an impressive $554.3 billion”, says the study.
The pandemic had a tremendous influence because it boosted the necessity to work from home, putting a strain on security, forcing even more cross-department collaboration in remote mode, and engulfing more data sources.
Questions to ask before choosing an AI platform for your IT operations - Top 5
The AI platform providers' landscape will become more and more crowded with various companies. AI-powered implementations offer analytics solutions ready to help humans with the decision-making processes while also performing security alert triage and taking automatic actions regarding some aspects which require standard responses. Here are five questions to ask before deciding who gets on the shortlist.
1. Does the solution use centralized, historical, and real-time data to make decisions?
AI process automation platforms adoption translates to data-driven solutions. The first step is to gather the necessary data in a centralized manner and then analyze it. The best platform designs are domain-agnostic so that they work regardless of the data source and the format. This feature helps them operate across different verticals and industries, not only IT, although it is ideally suited for this sector.
Data either comes from historical records or is recorded and transmitted in real-time (that is an approximation which means data about a second old). An AI-powered solution should be able to handle both, analyze, correlate and take decisions accordingly. This provides resolutions based on past experience and considers the current situation, similar to how the human mind works.
2. Can an AI solution provide ROI in a reasonable time frame?
Most AI-based solutions are not cheap, but they get to the breakeven point very fast and towards a great ROI in less than a year, considering that through operations monitoring, the company aims to fill in the gaps between the current and the desired state, and there is a clear flow for these.
Note that the solution is not economically efficient during the learning phase. Still, as soon as the machine learning algorithm has been trained and calibrated, it is ready to offer great insights and excellent quality leaps. It can directly affect metrics such as mean time to resolution, human time spent on notifications, and human time spent solving tickets. All these can be translated into savings.
For an accurate evaluation, you need to assess every process you hope to automatize and think if it is viable to eliminate the human part and replace it with AI.
The good news is that there will be some quick wins as soon as the ai and ml algorithm is trained, and you will see a boost in productivity right away. The bad news is that this change rate will slow down as the AI solutions become more stable. Detection quality will improve with use, so the sooner you get it, the better.
3. Will an AI-powered process automation solution work well with my current systems?
AI deployment does not come on a blank slate. It needs to integrate seamlessly with legacy systems and make full use of these. When selecting an AI platform provider, be sure to ask about connectivity and compatibility with your current configuration.
Ask about the provider's ability to connect to your existing infrastructure and retrieve data points from it in real-time. The AI platform needs to be able to manage the system to implement the decisions it takes immediately, with less or without human intervention. If your infrastructure has special requirements such as containers, serverless systems, or other special items, be sure to mention these and include them in the conditions.
Make a list of the applications for which you want performance monitoring if any. A simple application of AI for this is thread restarting without restarting the entire application.
4. Will such a solution help manage the organization more efficiently?
CIOs choose AI-powered platform deployment when their human teams become overwhelmed, especially regarding alert fatigue. Too many notifications, too many items to handle simultaneously.
This is an excellent tool to take on some of the work of NOC and SOC teams. Instead of letting humans do all the hard lifting, including repetitive tasks like ticket creation, information collection, and alert analysis, these can be left to AI. Simultaneously, the operations teams focus on finding solutions for those issues that don't have an automatic handling protocol.
The alert triage feature of some such systems aims to drastically reduce the number of alerts that are escalated to the engineers and cut through the alert noise.
One of the latest tools, the Arcanna.ai Alert Triage - part of Siscale’s AI-powered process automation platform, promises to correlate and suppress alerts up to the bare minimum. NOC and SOC engineers will have more time to find creative ways to resolve issues after the tool performs an automated check-up. Siscale’s AI system - Arcanna.ai, is bringing a revolutionary approach: a learning system formed - like Anton Chuvakin was saying in one of his mind-blowing articles, by “a combination of human brains confirming the alerts that are prepared by the machines in a way that's optimal for human decision” (The Uphill Battle of Triaging Alerts, Darkreading.com, 2019).
5. Does the platform offer high-security features?
A good AI-powered platform can also function as an additional security layer. It can help organizations be proactive about threats by identifying, isolating, and managing breaches. It can identify threats by performing anomaly detection and shut down systems or block access to resources if there are any concerns.
In addition to the platform's features, check if it connects well with other security measures such as firewalls, antivirus software, VPNs, and more.
Using machine learning, your organization can also analyze data and classify threats. This is the basis to create automated remedies and put in place automatic responses when a cybersecurity alert is fired.
This is a simple framework to help you structure your requirements when considering AI platforms adoption in your organization. For each department and each process, there are numerous other questions to ask, and the AI works best on a lean and streamlined workflow, so be sure to strategize before you digitalize.
Online Threat Alerts Security Tips
Pay the safest way
Credit cards are the safest way to pay for online purchases because you can dispute the charges if you never get the goods or services or if the offer was misrepresented. Federal law limits your liability to $50 if someone makes unauthorized charges to your account, and most credit card issuers will remove them completely if you report the problem promptly.
Guard your personal information
In any transaction you conduct, make sure to check with your state or local consumer protection agency and the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to see if the seller, charity, company, or organization is credible. Be especially wary if the entity is unfamiliar to you. Always call the number found on a website’s contact information to make sure the number legitimately belongs to the entity you are dealing with.
Be careful of the information you share
Never give out your codes, passwords or personal information, unless you are sure of who you're dealing with
Know who you’re dealing with
Crooks pretending to be from companies you do business with may call or send an email, claiming they need to verify your personal information. Don’t provide your credit card or bank account number unless you are actually paying for something and know who you are sending payment to. Your social security number should not be necessary unless you are applying for credit. Be especially suspicious if someone claiming to be from a company with whom you have an account asks for information that the business already has.
Check your accounts
Regularly check your account transactions and report any suspicious or unauthorised transactions.
Don’t believe promises of easy money
If someone claims that you can earn money with little or no work, get a loan or credit card even if you have bad credit, or make money on an investment with little or no risk, it’s probably a scam. Oftentimes, offers that seem too good to be true, actually are too good to be true.
Do not open email from people you don’t know
If you are unsure whether an email you received is legitimate, try contacting the sender directly via other means. Do not click on any links in an email unless you are sure it is safe.
Think before you click
If an email or text message looks suspicious, don’t open any attachments or click on the links.
Verify urgent requests or unsolicited emails, messages or phone calls before you respond
If you receive a message or a phone call asking for immediate action and don't know the sender, it could be a phishing message.
Be careful with links and new website addresses
Malicious website addresses may appear almost identical to legitimate sites. Scammers often use a slight variation in spelling or logo to lure you. Malicious links can also come from friends whose email has unknowingly been compromised, so be careful.
Secure your personal information
Before providing any personal information, such as your date of birth, Social Security number, account numbers, and passwords, be sure the website is secure.
Stay informed on the latest cyber threats
Keep yourself up to date on current scams by visiting this website daily.
Use Strong Passwords
Strong passwords are critical to online security.
Keep your software up to date and maintain preventative software programs
Keep all of your software applications up to date on your computers and mobile devices. Install software that provides antivirus, firewall, and email filter services.
Update the operating systems on your electronic devices
Make sure your operating systems (OSs) and applications are up to date on all of your electronic devices. Older and unpatched versions of OSs and software are the target of many hacks. Read the CISA security tip on Understanding Patches and Software Updates for more information.
What if You Got Scammed?
Stop Contact With The Scammer
Hang up the phone. Do not reply to emails, messages, or letters that the scammer sends. Do not make any more payments to the scammer. Beware of additional scammers who may contact you claiming they can help you get your lost money back.
Secure Your Finances
- Report potentially compromised bank account, credit or debit card information to your financial institution(s) immediately. They may be able to cancel or reverse fraudulent transactions.
- Notify the three major credit bureaus. They can add a fraud alert to warn potential credit grantors that you may be a victim of identity theft. You may also want to consider placing a free security freeze on your credit report. Doing so prevents lenders and others from accessing your credit report entirely, which will prevent them from extending credit:
- Equifax
- Experian
- TransUnion
Check Your Computer
If your computer was accessed or otherwise affected by a scam, check to make sure that your anti-virus is up-to-date and running and that your system is free of malware and keylogging software. You may also need to seek the help of a computer repair company. Consider utilizing the Better Business Bureau’s website to find a reputable company.
Change Your Account Passwords
Update your bank, credit card, social media, and email account passwords to try to limit further unauthorized access. Make sure to choose strong passwords when changing account passwords.
Report The Scam
Reporting helps protect others. While agencies can’t always track down perpetrators of crimes against scammers, they can utilize the information gathered to record patterns of abuse which may lead to action being taken against a company or industry.
Report your issue to the following agencies based on the nature of the scam:
- Local Law Enforcement: Consumers are encouraged to report scams to their local police department or sheriff’s office, especially if you lost money or property or had your identity compromised.
- Federal Trade Commission: Contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357) or use the Online Complaint Assistant to report various types of fraud, including counterfeit checks, lottery or sweepstakes scams, and more.
- Identitytheft.gov: If someone is using your personal information, like your Social Security, credit card, or bank account number, to open new accounts, make purchases, or get a tax refund, report it at www.identitytheft.gov. This federal government site will also help you create your Identity Theft Report and a personal recovery plan based on your situation. Questions can be directed to 877-ID THEFT.
How To Recognize a Phishing Scam
Scammers use email or text messages to try to steal your passwords, account numbers, or Social Security numbers. If they get that information, they could get access to your email, bank, or other accounts. Or they could sell your information to other scammers. Scammers launch thousands of phishing attacks like these every day — and they’re often successful.
Scammers often update their tactics to keep up with the latest news or trends, but here are some common tactics used in phishing emails or text messages:
Phishing emails and text messages often tell a story to trick you into clicking on a link or opening an attachment. You might get an unexpected email or text message that looks like it’s from a company you know or trust, like a bank or a credit card or utility company. Or maybe it’s from an online payment website or app. The message could be from a scammer, who might
- say they’ve noticed some suspicious activity or log-in attempts — they haven’t
- claim there’s a problem with your account or your payment information — there isn’t
- say you need to confirm some personal or financial information — you don’t
- include an invoice you don’t recognize — it’s fake
- want you to click on a link to make a payment — but the link has malware
- say you’re eligible to register for a government refund — it’s a scam
- offer a coupon for free stuff — it’s not real
About Online Threat Alerts (OTA)
Online Threat Alerts or OTA is an anti-cybercrime community that started in 2012. OTA alerts the public to cyber crimes and other web threats.
By alerting the public, we have prevented a lot of online users from getting scammed or becoming victims of cybercrimes.
With the ever-increasing number of people going online, it important to have a community like OTA that continuously alerts or protects those same people from cyber-criminals, scammers and hackers, who are every day finding new ways of carrying out their malicious activities.
Online users can help by reporting suspicious or malicious messages or websites to OTA. And, if they want to determine if a message or website is a threat or scam, they can use OTA's search engine to search for the website or parts of the message for information.
Help maintain Online Threat Alerts (OTA).