Seeing the Unseen: How Generative AI Elevates Situational Awareness in Cybersecurity (2024)

Situational awareness in cybersecurity is hard! And poor situational awareness can be disastrous in cybersecurity. For a CISO, it could mean missing acting on a critical gap in the security program, leading to a data breach that damages the company’s reputation and incurs massive fines. For a Director of Security Operations, it could result in vulnerability fatigue causing a real threat to be overlooked. And for IT teams, it could manifest as a misconfiguration in cloud settings, leaving sensitive data exposed to the internet.

Unfortunately as we have seen, adopting dozens of high-tech tools with fancy dashboards does not seem to give you improved situational awareness in cybersecurity. Indeed, your people tell you that we have too many tools and not enough time to understand what these tools are saying and act on those insights. This article is about how a cybersecurity AI assistant like BIX, working closely with you just as a co-worker, can help you gain improved situational awareness. Let’s take a look through all the challenges underlying the problems.

1. Too Much Data: Security teams have to deal with a massive amount of data across your tools, making it difficult to find real threats among all the noise.How BIX can help: BIX acts like a vigilant colleague, sorting through vast amounts of data continuously for insights, and notifying you as appropriate. By identifying patterns and highlighting the most pressing threats, BIX can help you focus on what truly matters without getting lost in the noise.
2. Complex Systems: Modern IT environments are complicated, with cloud, on-premises, and remote systems. It’s tough to see everything clearly across such diverse setups.BIX would say to you: “No worries! I’ll keep an eye on all our systems—whether they’re in the cloud, on-prem, or remote. I’ll make sure nothing slips through the cracks, so you can stay on top of it all.”
3. Constantly Changing Threats: Cyber threats evolve rapidly, so staying on top of the latest risks and tactics is challenging.
   How BIX can help: BIX stays updated on the latest threats, acting like a proactive teammate who’s always researching and learning. BIX anticipates new risks and will work with you to prepare for them before they become serious issues.
4. Too Many Alerts: Security tools often generate too many alerts, many of which are false alarms, leading to alert fatigue and missed real threats.How BIX can help: BIX can help you manage alerts, sorting through them and reducing the noise of false positives. By prioritizing actionable alerts, BIX will ensure that you’re not overwhelmed, making it easier to focus on genuine threats.
5. Lack of Skilled Experts: The shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals makes it hard for organizations to maintain a strong, real-time defense.How BIX can help: BIX will work alongside your team as a capable colleague, handling routine tasks and offering expert-level insights. BIX will lighten the load for everyone, so your team can concentrate on the strategic aspects of cybersecurity.
6. Disconnected Tools: Organizations use many different security tools that don’t always work well together, leading to gaps in visibility and awareness.How BIX can help: BIX brings your tools together, fostering collaboration across your security ecosystem. Acting as a bridge, BIX helps ensure all tools communicate effectively, allowing you to maintain clear visibility across your entire environment.
7. Lack of Context: Even with alerts, it’s hard to know if they represent real threats without proper context, making it difficult to prioritize responses.How BIX can help: BIX provides you with the context you need, adding valuable insights to alerts. This context helps you understand the bigger picture and prioritize responses based on what’s truly important.
8. Slow Detection: Delays in detecting and responding to threats can reduce the effectiveness of situational awareness.BIX would say to you: “I’m always on the lookout. When something happens, I’ll spot it right away and give you the heads-up. Let’s make sure we stay one step ahead by acting quickly and decisively.”
9. Human Errors: Mistakes like misconfigurations or missed alerts can weaken overall awareness and open the door to attacks.How BIX can help: BIX watches out for potential mistakes, like a careful colleague who double-checks your work. By identifying and correcting issues early, BIX would help you to keep your defenses strong and your awareness sharp.