Cyber Arena Ripe for Maturation With AI/ML
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can contribute to the maturation of cybersecurity and cyber defense capabilities, according to Brig. Gen. Mark Miles, deputy commanding general, Army Cyber Center of Excellence (CCoE).
“If there’s an area that is ripe for maturation with the injection of some kind of machine learning/artificial intelligence, I would argue it is the cybersecurity and cyber defense side,” Gen. Miles declared.
Gen. Miles made the comments during a morning keynote address on the final day of AFCEA’s TechNet Augusta conference in Augusta, Georgia.
He stressed the need for warfighters to make decisions more rapidly than adversaries and the importance of data in that rapid decision-making. On the battlefield, data offers insights that spur actions that lead to outcomes.
Applying decision science and data architectures support faster, better decisions. Gen. Miles suggested leaders begin the decision-making process by identifying a decision they want to form and then working backward by collecting and analyzing data to make an informed decision.
“Getting the decisions right, making smarter decisions, identifying what those decisions are and how critical they are and then how we’re aligned to execute those is an extremely critical step,” he said. “If you don’t get the actual decision and the process isn’t right to support it, speeding up probably isn’t going to give you a lot of advantages against an advanced adversary.”
As for making those choices faster, Army leaders can use AI and ML. And even though advanced technology introduces the possibility of more advanced threats, Gen. Miles noted, the rewards can outweigh the risks.
“If there’s a unique thing on the cyber defense piece, it is that we have a mountain of data that we historically haven’t put into use, that we just haven’t had the tools or the ability to turn that around and inform our defense and make us more agile,” said Gen. Miles. “Yeah, the threats are going to get bigger, but I’m an optimist [that] we’re going to be able to use and leverage much of that data that we have already collected.”
