Where and how can we leverage Generative AI in our business?
This is the top question that every business is asking today. Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) are no exception. Since the debut of ChatGPT in 2022, Generative AI (Gen AI) has experienced rapid adoption. According to McKinsey’s State of AI 2023 report, 79% of respondents say they have been exposed to Gen AI, and 33% of companies use it in at least one business function. But many believe we're only scratching the surface of the incredible productivity gains at hand.
In cybersecurity, Gen AI has been a boon not only for defenders but also has lowered the barriers for threat actors to launch attacks. SlashNext’s State of Phishing 2023 study reported a 1,265% rise in malicious phishing emails using AI tools since the launch of ChatGPT. This increasing trend is likely to continue. In fact, a January 2024 assessment by the UK's National Cyber Security Center further validated that AI will almost certainly increase the volume and impact of cyberattacks - including ransomware - over the next two years. With threat actors unleashing attacks at machine speed, enterprises are seeking ways to streamline security operations, create efficiencies, and proactively respond to threats. To stay ahead of threats and deliver exceptional value to clients, MSSPs have much to benefit from embracing Gen AI.
Five compelling reasons why Gen AI augmentation is a must-have for MSSPs
Automate and enhance threat detection: Gen AI can analyze vast amounts of data and conduct thorough investigations more accurately and quickly than humans, significantly reducing incident response times. It excels at identifying patterns, detects even subtle anomalies, and provides insights into novel and zero-day threats that human analysts may miss. As a result, MSSPs can improve their overall effectiveness in protecting their clients - with smarter, faster investigations.
Reduce business costs: Gen AI can handle large volumes of alerts without proportional increases in costs or staffing requirements, allowing MSSPs to scale quickly. AI automation can offset the labor costs associated with human analysts processing alerts by as much as 90%. MSSPs can further improve their margins by repurposing roles and assigning their human analysts to work on higher-value, higher-margin projects.
Generate new revenue streams: Gen AI can not only enhance current offerings but also help develop new services and capabilities that were previously impossible due to resource constraints. Unlike human analysts, who may not be experts in every security system, Gen AI can be trained to detect, hunt, and analyze various security threats and vulnerabilities. Additionally, it retains the training knowledge forever and does not struggle with context switching, allowing MSSPs to expand services into other cybersecurity areas easily.
Operate without talent constraints: Cybersecurity skills are in high demand but are in short supply. Security talent with MSSP experience remains highly sought after in the industry because of their diverse skill set and exposure to various environments. As a result, MSSPs struggle with high employee turnover, with trained analysts taking valuable knowledge with them and with an endless loop of rehiring and training. This high employee turnover creates a vicious cycle. The departing employees overburden the remaining team and create a stressful environment that pushes even well-compensated employees to consider leaving. But virtual analysts powered by Gen AI do not require any recruiting effort, will show up daily, and will not leave for better offers.
Better, MSSPs can leverage Gen AI to improve employees' job satisfaction, particularly that of Tier 1 analysts. By automating monotonous, mundane investigation tasks and freeing them to work on complex projects, MSSPs can increase employee engagement and reduce talent attrition.
Improve quality of service: Most often, MSSPs operate as a globally distributed team to provide 24x7 response to security incidents for clients. While this ensures round-the-clock coverage, consistency in service delivery across a dispersed team is a real challenge for MSSPs. In contrast, Gen AI algorithms can follow a consistent process, meticulously run through the investigation steps every time until no stone is unturned, bringing standardization to investigations and reports to share with clients. Furthermore, these AI analysts can work tirelessly 24x7x365 days (even during your company’s holiday shutdowns), so MSSPs could even consider operating from a single location rather than having businesses in multiple geographies, reducing operating costs.
To sum up, Gen AI can fundamentally change how MSSPs operate. Ignoring it is not only a missed opportunity but also a risk to the business and their clients' security.
What should the MSSPs look for when considering Gen AI-powered automation technology?
When it comes to leveraging Gen AI-powered systems for service providers, there are certain factors that set apart best-in-class solutions from the rest. These include the following.
Pre-training for different alert types: AI systems need to be trained to investigate different types of alerts. It is also important that these models are trained on high-quality and secure data so that they can learn accurately to recognize patterns and identify malicious activities with precision.
Deliver Immediate ROI: The pre-trained AI systems should start investigating security alerts from day one of deployment, delivering immediate value.
Out-of-the-box integrations: AI systems should be able to integrate with ticketing systems and existing security tools seamlessly to deliver alert investigation capabilities with existing security tools, eliminating the need for costly and complex data integrations to simplify SOC workload.
Context understanding and accurate detection: Understanding the organization’s cybersecurity context is indispensable to identifying and predicting potential security incidents and accurately distinguishing false positives. To achieve this, AI systems should be able to access and learn organizational context and adapt dynamically to the environment to effectively respond to threats. For example, if a client’s particular server is scheduled to do a backup every seven days, the AI system should retain and factor that information when investigating alerts. Such contextual analysis reduces false positives and allows MSSPs to focus their resources on actual threats, improving their service quality and efficiency.
Service customization: In addition to creating reports for analysts, AI systems should facilitate effective client engagements by allowing MSSPs to create reports in simple, non-technical language to share with clients, allowing them to highlight the value they provide.
AI chatbot assistance: AI systems should be able to help analysts further investigate specific alerts with tools such as AI chatbots or perform ad-hoc inquiries and get immediate and intuitive responses in natural language without tabbing to multiple different tools
Conclusion
The future of cybersecurity is where humans and AI work together to stay ahead of threat actors. Dropzone AI brings cutting-edge Gen AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) to conduct end-to-end alert investigations autonomously, allowing MSSPs to go from ticket creation to completed investigation in a matter of minutes. Augment your team with Dropzone, bring your operation into the AI era, and take your services to new heights. Learn more about Dropzone for MSSPs, Request a demo, or take a test drive today!