Subscribe
Sectors
Companies
About

Balancing power of AI with people to defend against cyber attacks

Christopher Tredger
By Christopher Tredger, Portals editor
Johannesburg, 10 Apr 2025
Tope Olufon, senior analyst at Forrester.
Tope Olufon, senior analyst at Forrester.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to strengthen defences against cyber crime, particularly within threat intelligence, forensics and defence. However, the technology is just as useful for cyber criminals, which is why organisations must strike a balance between human intelligence and AI.  

This is according to Tope Olufon, senior analyst at Forrester, who is scheduled to deliver the opening international keynote presentation at the ITWeb Security Summit 2025 on 3 June at the Sandton Convention Centre, in Johannesburg.

ITWeb Security Summit 2025 Johannesburg – 3 & 4 June

As the cyber threat landscape becomes increasingly complex, it's critical that businesses, cyber security leaders and teams stay ahead. At the ITWeb Security Summit, the annual gathering of cyber security professionals, experts and thought leaders, we will unpack all the latest developments, the methods that attackers are using and best strategies to protect your digital assets.

For more information and to register, click here.  

Olufon will discuss the role that AI can play in cyber security, specifically in identity and access management (IAM), fraud management and threat intelligence.

Olufon says organisations continue to experiment with the features of AI and can find value in automating the manual and repetitive aspects of security.

He adds that the emerging technology cannot replace people when it comes to decision-making as of now and should be used as an efficiency multiplier

Organisations still need people’s cognitive ability and reasoning power, which should be integrated with the value that AI can bring to business – particularly in their ability to defend resources against threat actors.

See also
Cyber security threats loom over major events in Africa
Survey: Is everyone in the organisation responsible for cyber security?

“Threat actors have a higher risk tolerance… they don’t prescribe to any laws or follow any regulation or policy. This means organisations need to be pragmatic about their use and control of AI,” said Olufon.

Olufon has identified three key points that he will expound on and communicate to delegates:

  • AI has the potential to identify policy side-effects and enable better change management.
  • Abstracting the menial aspects of security engineering and response will create significant productivity gains.
  • AI pattern recognition capabilities will be useful to practitioners for drawing better insights from threat intelligence data.

He will also examine practical examples of the use of AI in:

  • IAM and decentralised digital identity.
  • Fraud management.
  • Threat intelligence.

The main question that Olufon will help delegates to answer is how to leverage AI to secure the organisation.

Click here for more information and to register.

Share