AI is making the cyber crime kill chain faster and harder to predict. To stay ahead of attackers and build more resilient security postures, companies need to change their approaches.
This is according to Noko Terrence Tuwe, regional director for Africa at Cyberrey, who spoke during the ITWeb Security Summit in Sandton earlier this month.
Tuwe noted that AI used within companies is expanding their attack surface, while AI used by attackers is accelerating their progress through the kill chain.
Comparing traditional approaches with modern models for mitigating risk, Tuwe said the old way was to wait for alerts and then panic. The new way is to map the company’s exposure before attackers do. Where once companies assumed the firewall was invincible and blamed IT when it wasn’t, they should now have real-time breach intelligence and continuous threat monitoring.
“Once attackers spot your digital exposure, the clock starts ticking,” he said. “The transition from reconnaissance to exploitation happens in hours, not days, because attackers have automated tools that can probe and exploit rapidly.”
Tuwe said companies must shift from playing ‘whack-a-mole’ with threats and become more proactive.
“Cyber threats don’t start at your firewall – they start with your digital exposure,” he said.
He recommended continuous threat monitoring, defence prioritisation based on advanced threat hunting, automated response workflows, regular posture assessments and building a culture of security awareness.
With automated incident response workflows channelling intelligence to the SOC, machines can handle the repetitive work while humans manage the chaos, he said.
Share
