Congressional Hearings Focus on SecOps and Machine Learning

It becomes obvious a technology reaches critical mass when the United States Congress holds an inquest on the topic. As such, recent congressional hearings focused on the critical nature of cybersecurity in America. Their interest provides a little surprise with ransomware and other cyber attacks now a regular occurrence in the news.

Notably, these latest hearings concentrated on using AI and machine learning to help protect against cybercrime. The difficulty in recruiting experienced cybersecurity professionals also became an important sidebar during these discussions. What follows is a high-level overview of the discussions of this congressional committee. Use this information as food for thought for your company’s SecOps approach.

Why is SecOps and Machine Learning Being Talked About?

Why AI and Machine Learning Matter in Cybersecurity

The United States Senate Armed Forces Committee’s Subcommittee on Cyber took place in early May. Obviously, this hearing focused more on the critical nature of SecOps to the nation’s military and how AI helps. However, these same concepts also apply to protecting technical infrastructures within the business world.

Dr. Andrew Moore, director of Google Cloud Artificial Intelligence, briefed the senators on why AI matters in SecOps. He discussed how AI in cybersecurity benefits from its ability to quickly process massive amounts of network data. He also noted well-trained machine learning models help to identify suspicious activity on corporate and military networks.

Of course, properly training these models relies on using historical network data. Moore mentioned changing attack styles requires models “learn new patterns or detecting whole new kinds of attacks in real-time.” Human SecOps engineers play a critical role in this machine learning model training. However, finding talented and experienced cybersecurity professionals with AI experience remains a daunting prospect.

America Needs an Influx of SecOps Professionals

Eric Horvitz, Microsoft’s Chief Science Officer, noted the troublesome nature of this shortage of cybersecurity professionals. Coincidentally or not, a similar shortage of experienced tech pros with AI experience also hampers the larger business world. Horvitz feels the fact cyber criminals now leverage AI in their attacks greatly raises the stakes in this battle.

He feels organizations need to invest in research and development to handle these rapid changes in AI and cybersecurity. At the same time, companies suffering from a machine learning skills gap must provide training to existing IT staff. This approach when combined with proactive SecOps efforts helps businesses and governmental agencies close that crucial gap.

Are You Paying Attention to SecOps and Machine Learning?

If your company needs to close a cybersecurity skills gap, connect with the team at Redbud Cyber. As one of the top SecOps staffing agencies in the country, we provide experienced candidates to help protect your technical assets. Schedule a meeting with us to discuss your current hiring plans.