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IBM looks to arm SA orgs with GenAI-powered cyber security

Lezeth Khoza
By Lezeth Khoza, Intern portals journalist
Johannesburg, 22 Aug 2024
IBM has adds a GenAI-powered assistant to its cyber security consulting services offering.
IBM has adds a GenAI-powered assistant to its cyber security consulting services offering.

IBM has added a GenAI-powered assistant to its threat detection and response offering.

Introduced earlier this month, the new Consulting Cybersecurity Assistant aims to accelerate and improve the identification and response to security threats.

Dr Stephen Berjak, IBM cyber security services leader for South Africa & Africa growth markets, says South African organisations are facing cyber threats and data breaches at an exponential rate, and AI-powered solutions that support the work of security teams are essential.

According to IBM’s 2024 Cost of a Data Breach report, the average cost of a data breach in South Africa reached R53.10 million this year.

In addition, one of the main factors identified that amplified breach costs was a security skills shortage. 

"Finding professionals with the right knowledge and skill set is an increasingly significant challenge for organisations across Africa," notes Berjak. "Those that fail to fill these positions face more costly and harder-to-contain breaches, leading to greater exposure and a more substantial impact on their business."

In AI we trust

IBM has noted that more African organisations are looking to AI to fortify their cyber security defences. 

“Over the past year, through conducting research we have found that nearly 19% of cyber incidents in Africa were automatically remediated by AI solutions. They also provide tools to identify patterns, define strategies and automate responses while helping address the skills shortage challenges in the market,” says Berjak.

“Our research has also found that 12% of cyber security spend in Africa is dedicated to AI and automation. Secondly, organisations are also starting to prioritise overall IT security, with IT spend accounting to 12% of revenue. Spending on AI as a percentage of IT spend is also nearly 12%," he says.

The introduction of IBM's AI assistant comes at a time when cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated, with criminals utilising AI to scale their attacks for greater impact.

Berjak explains that the Consulting Cybersecurity Assistant was developed in collaboration with IBM Research and takes advantage of IBM's broader GenAI capabilities – built on the company's Granite foundation models, refined for production within IBM watsonx.ai, and tapping into IBM watsonx Assistant for the conversational chat interface.

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