Applications of Machine Learning in Cyber Security

What Is Machine Learning?

As the scientists focused more on solving the issues related with the computer systems including the security aspect, they drove themselves closer to a technology that acted like humans. This was the beginning of AI (Artificial Intelligence) applications that surpassed their detection as computer systems by users. Initially generated, AI applications aimed at clearing the Turing Test which is a test of a machine’s ability to showcase intelligent behavior that is tantamount to or indiscernible from that of a human intelligence. But since AI was initiated with the very purpose of specific application domains such as face recognition, object recognition, it was soon realized that creating an AI that worked in terms of the human brain completely was an arduous task. Hence, the concept of Machine Learning was evolved.

Machine Learning is essentially an approach to Artificial intelligence that makes use of any system that is adept in learning like humans, i.e., from experience (Al-Jarrah et al., 2015; Buczak & Guven eta l, 2016). Just like a human brain, it aims at recognizing the patterns and upgrades itself to apply them in the future decisions. Thus, it defies the old traditions of feeding data into the systems through programming and learns by examples. The decisions in Machine Learning are driven by data rather than algorithms and also change its behavior, upon accommodating new information, that sets’ it apart from the lot of technologies aiming to achieve cyber security (Michalski, 2013). Simply put, Machine Learning is a type of Artificial intelligence that allows the system to learn without being explicitly programmed wherein computer programs are developed in such a way that they change whenever exposed to new data (Cavelty, 2010).

The ultimate aim of Machine Learning techniques can be thought of as enabling software’s to be able to make decisions much like humans do in cases of cyber attacks that have been previously encountered by the system and also those not encountered before. The breach of data in big organizations has incurred a huge loss, with the average cost being over $3 million. Since cyber crimes have become rhetoric in the current scenario, it is the most researched field today and the scientists have been struggling to devise techniques that could reduce the cost factor while dealing with the attacks.

Though the buzz around Machine Learning technology has just gained momentum, but the concept is as old as the computer history itself. Data produced from computer systems and sensors were processed and were derived some meaning from since the first computers were in use. The discussion has caught up pace today because of the huge amount of data available to us today, thus giving it a name, Big Data.