National Security Agency (NSA) forecasted a future in which Artificial Intelligence (AI) will support the Intelligence Community’s (IC) efforts to secure and defend the United States’ networks. The next frontier s is probably in the cybersecurity space as there’s a lot of opportunities to bring machines to this very low latency, highly dynamic problem in ways that are not human-time kinds of responses.
Cybersecurity is a space where AI efforts are underway that will be mature along with partners. One of the things to focus on is how to maximise the abilities as a U.S. IC against adversaries. Part of the solution is going to be working together to partner with each other across the various authorities that they represent. The IC will try to coordinate on talent development and continue to pursue some of the best talents in AI and machine learning so that they can build a little bit of that technical headroom internally within their agencies.
The global competition in this space is very dynamic but there are things that they can do to maintain their advantages. As an agency within the Department of Defense (DoD), NSA routinely coordinates with members of the DoD’s Joint AI Center, formed in 2018 to explore the use of AI in actual combat. NSA also made efforts over the past 10 years to develop natural language processing, a branch of AI that allows computers to understand human language.
At the NSA, with most of its industry and academic counterparts, the journey started in this area of natural language processing and computer vision — applying capabilities like machine transcription, machine translation to its mission. Part of the journey over this past decade has been maturing those foundational AI capabilities to extend to some of their core missions. NSA’s cybersecurity triage mission is one of the focus areas that has been impacted by natural language processing.
NSA has been able to extend research outcomes of AI into mission applications. What that has enabled them to do over this past decade is build this environment of culture and trust to where they can have an AI conversation with their analysts, their decision-makers, and their policy leads in ways that are empirically driven, beyond theoretical.
As part of the ongoing response to combat cyberattacks, agencies across the U.S. government announced new resources and initiatives to protect American businesses and communities. As reported by OpenGov Asia, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), together with federal partners, has launched a new website to combat the threat of ransomware.
StopRansomware.gov establishes a one-stop hub for ransomware resources for individuals, businesses, and other organisations. The new website is a collaborative effort across the federal government and the first joint website created to help private and public organisations mitigate their ransomware risk.
As ransomware attacks continue to rise around the world, businesses and other organisations must prioritise their cybersecurity. Cybercriminals have targeted critical infrastructure, small businesses, hospitals, police departments, schools, and more. These attacks directly impact Americans’ daily lives and the security of the nation. This new resource provides useful information to learn how to protect themselves from ransomware and reduce their cybersecurity risk.
The website is the first central hub consolidating ransomware resources from all federal government agencies. Prior to today, individuals and organisations had to visit a variety of websites to find guidance, latest alerts, updates, and resources, increasing the likelihood of missing important information. The website integrates federal ransomware resources into a single platform that includes clear guidance on how to report attacks, and the latest ransomware-related alerts and threats from all participating agencies.
