LIVE FROM GSMA MOBILE 360 SERIES – PRIVACY & SECURITY: Security experts discussed how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning could play a key role in safeguarding businesses, but emphasised these developments must complement the human element rather than replace it.

In a panel session addressing cybersecurity testing, Rabobank information security officer Martin de Vries (pictured, right) explained automation is becoming essential because the large amount of data produced by myriad security systems is simply too much to “actually manually digest or work with.”

Scarce resources mean Rabobank automates the process of analysing data “as much as possible”, which offers benefits in terms of real-time threat analysis and warning systems. The number of security tools deployed by the bank generate “millions of events” which need to be analysed. There is “no way a human can do that alone,” de Vries explained.

The payoff is ensuring “you can make some decent decisions based on the data you have,” de Vries added.

Elizabeth Kleinveld, partner success manager at Startupbootcamp Amsterdam (pictured, centre), highlighted the challenge facing businesses in terms of cybersecurity, noting a new flaw is “found every 30 minutes at the very least”. She questioned how any organisation can keep pace “if they’re not automating this process.”

People power
However, the focus on automation did not mean the importance of people was overlooked.

Ori Fragman, co-CEO and head of Europe at Comsec (pictured, left), noted simply getting various teams talking about security at the “inception phases” can greatly improve the efficiency of the whole process.

Ensuring staff on various teams “ask the right questions” about security from the off means “in most cases, we actually identify that 90 per cent of the possible vulnerabilities that we’ve talked about are already being addressed,” in turn saving the company “a lot of money”.

De Vries agreed people are a key element in security, explaining responsibility doesn’t just lie with engineers or programmers writing code, “but also the personal assistant of someone in the board,” along with the board members themselves.