Research Shows Security Pros Believe Cybercriminals are Winning the AI Race

One-in-three say attackers are more effective at using Artificial Intelligence than defenders; More than half of organizations forced to overhaul or scrap AI projects

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—May 3, 2022—Devo Technology, the cloud-native logging and security analytics company, today announced the results of its research that found Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an innovation battleground between cybercriminals and enterprises, and the bad guys are winning. The survey found that more than 30% of cybersecurity pros admit malicious actors are more adept at using AI to attack their organization than they are at leveraging AI for defense. Findings also reveal the extent to which organizations are struggling to effectively implement AI to aid and augment cybersecurity efforts, with more than 50% having to undertake major changes, or reset and start over.

The research, conducted by Wakefield Research on behalf of Devo earlier this year, surveyed 200 IT security professionals. The survey covers AI implementations that comprise a gamut of defensive disciplines including threat detection, understanding strengths and gaps in cybersecurity, breach risk prediction, incident response/management and IT asset inventory management.

“AI is supposed to be a force multiplier for cybersecurity teams who are already playing catchup with savvy malicious actors, so ‘back to the drawing board’ is not an option,” said Gunter Ollmann, Devo CSO. “Unfortunately, the ‘Big AI Lie’ is that, frankly, not all AI is that intelligent, even before we account for mismatches in needs and capabilities.  Security has long suffered the ‘silver bullet’ problem and AI is the latest offender. Organizations need to be deliberate and results-driven in how they evaluate and deploy AI solutions, pairing it with experienced, knowledgeable experts in the technology, or they risk putting themselves further behind the eight ball.”

In polling respondents, it was also found that a whopping 92% of organizations have AI practices that “barely scratch the surface” of its potential. An overwhelming 89% report that their AI efforts have been confronted with challenges, with more than a third admitting to flawed deployment and more than a fifth citing ineffective performance. Of those that have struggled, 53% said that issues required “major changes and/or additional investment to the AI” and 12% said it was problematic enough to prompt “scrapping” the AI and starting over. The issues included are as follows: 

• Close to 50% experienced too much noise to understand or sift through 
• Critical events were not being properly flagged in 44% of environments 
• End users did not understand AI outputs in 41% of cases

Read more on the findings on the Devo blog.

About Devo

Devo is the only cloud-native logging and security analytics platform that releases the full potential of your data to empower bold, confident action. With unrivaled scale to collect all of your data without compromise, speed to give you immediate access and answers, and clarity to focus on the signals that matter most, Devo is your ally in protecting your organization today and tomorrow. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with operations in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, Devo is backed by Insight Partners, Georgian, TCV, General Atlantic, Bessemer Venture Partners, Kibo Ventures and Eurazeo. Learn more at www.devo.com.

Devo Media Contact:
Shannon Todesca
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