Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence in Cybersecurity, Use AI to protect your organization, by Lisa Ventura, KoganPage 2026

When we think AI, or what author Lisa Ventura calls "the digital arms race," we're not picturing the early ferocious battle between Apple and IBM over software development, when users had to make big decisions on which tool to buy, or the network conflict between Microsoft and "the Others," all choices that left early users boxed in with limited options.  That's all expanded now beyond the loss of Steve Jobs and a rapid succession of global IT systems.  And its a good place to be.

But this new tool, Artificial Intelligence, feels bigger, with potentially more power, than anything the earliest innovators promised us (with the exception of the 1970 movie Colossus!) , because as we are learning daily, even hourly, AI is a broad and difficult to define entity.  AI is powerful, and although a few companies, such as Anthropic, now dominate the AI world, the applications can be huge and far-reaching. Or, they can be deceptively simple apps  And that's why this Lisa Ventura book is a good starting point for those of us who want to diagram the concept and flow it into our most familiar and unprotected areas.

The author leads with a great history of how we got here, working through simple programs designed to mimic human intelligence processes, to bigger, more integrated data networks, and of course computer power and speed.  This whole challenge could not have happened, even if predicted, without the hardware to move, store and access the data.  When we were stuck on core memory back in the 70s, our coming transition to semiconductor chips opened endless possibilities - and cybersecurity threats -  for us all.

Healthcare under duress

Take healthcare, for example.  Although the author names the top five current cyber threat trends, what has happened in healthcare for identity theft and recurring breaks will shock you, and may cost consumers large sums of money:

Ventura cites five cyber threats invading our healthcare systems with results that can hurt a hospital's financials and funding, as well as patient care:

Top Five Current Cyber Threat Trends

1.  Ransomware evolution:  Ransomware operations continue advancing beyond encryption toward comprehensive enterprise extortion through data theft, business process disruption and reputation damage, combining multiple pressure mechanisms compelling payment.

2.  Supply chain targeting:  Adversaries increasingly target supplier networks rather than multiple objectives, compromising trusted relationships and distribution mechanisms and creating attack vectors bypassing perimeter defenses through seemingly legitimate channels.

3.  Cloud security challenges:  Migration toward distributed environments creates novel security considerations through shared responsibility models, identity-centric security requirements and configuration risks requiring specialized protection approaches.  

4.  AI-powered attacks ;  Threat actors leverage machine learning capabilities enhancing social engineering personalization, vulnerability discovery automation and defensive evasion through mimicking legitimate behavior patterns challenging traditional detection approaches.  

5. Operational technology convergence:  The increasing connection between information technology and physical control systems creates critical infrastructure vulnerability through cyber-physical attack vectors, potentially affecting essential services through digital means.  pages 181-182

Traditional medical systems are vulnerable because attackers, warns the author, can use AI "as a force multiplier" to take on and manipulate more data.  She notes that hackers can use AI to locate weak spots in hospital networks, and they can bypass traditional IT safeguards and signals.  She warns that weak hospital networks face the threat of patient data takeovers as well as takeover of critical equipment.  The answer is a toughie - Ventura recommends more demanding security ratings among staff, strict access controls, and all-around threat detection tools.  Obviously, threat detection and prevention can cost facilities funding to prevent even greater financial losses.  

Ventura mentions Total Assure, a cybersecurity firm, with estimates that data breaches cost on average $7.42M globally.  Further, in the U.S. over 935M patient records have been exposed or stolen since mandatory tracking began.  And finally, the fix - hospitals take an average of 279 days to locate and trap a hacker.  The prospect of losing control of one's medical records is frightening when it means that insurance fraud can happen, as well as misuse of patient records or even incorrect treatment.  

And this is all about AI, bigger and faster, but finally coming into our real daily lives.  Learning protective responses is on our list of the next big IT challenge, and Lisa Ventura's book, from definition of AI and its known apps, to intrusive cyber threats and financial issues, to the fixes, is a rich starting point.  

Patricia E. Moody

FORTUNE magazine  "Pioneering Woman in Mfg" 

IndustryWeek IdeaXchange Xpert

A Mill Girl at Blue Heron Journal, on-line resource for business thought-leaders and decision-makers,  patriciaemoody@gmail.com