“The question is, how isn’t AI changing security,” says Zeus Kerravala, founder and principal analyst with ZK Research. “It’s allowing [bad actors] to do the things they did with wired [networks], but a lot faster and with a lot more granularity than they had before.”
Mounting a strong defense means fighting AI with AI, and companies including Cisco are developing tools to do just that. But experts make clear that well-known strategies, including zero trust and network segmentation, will also go a long way toward offering sound protection.
“AI hasn’t fundamentally changed cybersecurity,” says John Kindervag, chief evangelist at network security vendor Illumio. “It’s exposed years of neglected fundamentals and misinformation.” (Kindervag, credited with coining the term zero trust when he was an analyst at Forrester Research, says the five wireless security myths he outlined in a 2006 paper are still discussed today as viable Wi-Fi security measures – but shouldn’t be.)
Escalating wireless threats and an AI paradox
The Cisco study is intended to make the case that wireless is crucial to realizing the growth potential of AI and, therefore, must be both secure and high-performance. Upgrading to the latest iterations of Wi-Fi solutions delivers both. So, it’s a return-on-investment argument: Pay now to improve the performance and security of your wireless infrastructure, or muddle along and take your chances.
