The digital era of today has ushered in innovative technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Both can enhance a company’s productivity, increase revenue, and help strengthen the user experience. However, with this technology comes an increased risk of devastating cyberattacks. With these threats on the horizon, your company must discover ways to protect your infrastructure and valuable data. This is why businesses like yours have found value in carrying out cybersecurity risk assessments.

Emerging AI & ML Security Threats

Many are implementing AI and ML-powered cybersecurity solutions. Despite this belief, with each advancement comes an advancement for cybercriminals. Experts say these advancements will make it more difficult to detect, track, and mitigate critical hacks and breaches. Making your company aware of both the benefits and the cybersecurity risk of AI and ML technology will help you understand the importance of an assessment.

Although experts expect AI technology to streamline everyday life, they’re also predicting that AI will become a dual-use technology; pointing out that these advancements can help cybercriminals find new ways to hack private networks, infrastructure-crippling software bugs, and much more. The more physical influence we give these technologies, the more we become vulnerable to AI misuse.

What Makes an Effective Cybersecurity Risk Assessment?

Any proper cybersecurity risk assessment will be an on-going process, where your company uncovers, protects, and fixes any potential risk or vulnerabilities. Your evaluation should be a central component of your company’s security plan. Before initiating your cybersecurity risk assessment be sure it can produce the following:

• Identify potential threats
• Identify vulnerabilities
• Predict the impact of threats
• Provide threat recovery options

The Benefits of a Cybersecurity Risk Assessment

This year alone we have seen global corporations fall prey to cybercrimes, like the recent breach, where 1.2 billion records were exposed in an unsecure database. These type of crimes emphasize the importance of enhanced enterprise security, which starts with a cybersecurity risk assessment. Besides safeguarding valuable information, here are a few other benefits of implementing this kind of security test:

• Increased Awareness
  A cybersecurity risk assessment can help educate all of your employees on what threats your business may face, where those threats might take place, and how those threats can potentially impact their role. Implementing this type of assessment will teach them the importance of cybersecurity but also allow them to embed cybersecurity efforts into their daily list of responsibilities. Being aware of potential threats is a significant first step towards defending your company.


• Mitigate Future Risk
  No company can say that they’re safe from the consequences of the cyberattacks the industry faces today. However, being prepared for any hacks can save your company time, money, and resources. Implementing an effective cybersecurity risk assessment will help your business mitigate hacks or breaches. In other words, this test will help prepare your company for the worst, even if the worse never comes. When your company is prepared, this will ensure you can mitigate the damage of a successful attack.


• Enhanced Communication
  Your cybersecurity risk assessment can also help improve the way your business communicates. Once you’ve developed and deployed your assessment, you’ll likely notice enhanced internal communications. This happens because various employees, departments, and stakeholders will need to come together and give their input to help improve the evaluation. Your professionals will then know how and who to communicate possible breaches or any suspicious activity they notice.

AI and ML technologies are set to continue to evolve. So your company must assume that the associated crimes will evolve as well. Take the time to create and deploy a cybersecurity risk assessment to educate your employees and protect your assets. If your business lacks the cybersecurity talent needed, contact Datum Consulting today. We are the skilled IT and cybersecurity professionals your business needs to complete these assessments and begin implementing regular security audits.