With the growth of the digital ecosystem in Latin America, businesses and governments in the region have become prime targets for cybercriminals. To address this challenge, organisations must prioritise cybersecurity as an aspect of their business strategy.

This means investing in security frameworks, building cybersecurity teams, and fostering a culture of cybersecurity awareness across the organisation.

Enhancing threat intelligence capabilities is one of the priorities for American enterprises in 2024. By leveraging technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) organisations can stay ahead of attackers. Proactively monitoring and analysing cyber threats helps identify vulnerabilities before they can be exploited, enabling implementation of measures.

As businesses strive to protect their assets and safeguard user privacy, AI has emerged as a player in cybersecurity. However, a critical question arises: How can we effectively strike a balance between the power of AI and the need for security measures?

Relying solely on manual security approaches is no longer practical. Enter AI as a game-changer providing insights that help organisations anticipate and respond to cyber threats effectively. Machine learning algorithms have proven to be invaluable in applications, including in the realm of cybersecurity. These algorithms allow AI systems to analyse datasets, uncover patterns and even predict attacks before they happen.

AI has also found its place in incident response and threat mitigation. It empowers security teams to simultaneously analyse data sources and promptly identify and prioritise threats based on their severity.

Additionally, AI-driven automated processes can significantly reduce response times while streamlining the incident resolution process.

Unlike security systems that primarily recognise known attack patterns, AI-powered systems excel at identifying anomalies and deviations from behaviour — even if they have never encountered a specific threat before.

Furthermore, AI can contribute to the identification and analysis of malware. With the increasing sophistication of malware strains, traditional antivirus software often struggles to keep up with the evolving threat landscape. By leveraging machine learning algorithms these systems can continuously update their knowledge base ensuring their ability to detect evasive malware.

One notable challenge, though, lies in the shortage of professionals in developing and managing AI-powered security systems. The demand for cybersecurity experts surpasses supply, necessitating investments in training programmes to bridge this gap. Collaborative efforts between academia, industry and government entities foster the development of skills required for AI-driven security solutions.

Moreover, striking a balance between utilising AI and implementing security measures is complicated due to the competition between cyber attackers and defenders. As AI systems become more prevalent cybercriminals can also exploit their capabilities for purposes. In response to these evolving threats organisations must enhance their AI defences to stay one step ahead of adversaries.

Organisations can strike a balance between harnessing the capabilities of AI while ensuring security measures. The future lies in integrating AI with security measures to empower organisations to stay ahead in the changing cyber risk landscape.

The above is an edited version of a presentation by Jaime Chanaga, Field CISO at Fortinet Latin America, the Caribbean & Canada.