BTS account manager Anthony Terrano led a breakout session at recent municipal and credit union conferences, entitled Leveraging AI to Secure Your Business. He explained different types of AI, risks to business networks from cyber security attacks, and what AI tools we use to combat them. It’s such important information, we thought we’d share a timely and informative excerpt here!
Which AI is for Security?
Let’s first differentiate between the types of AI you might be more familiar with and the ones used for cybersecurity. There is Generative AI, such as ChatGPT, Grok, Microsoft CoPilot, and Deepseek which are focused on content creation using Large Language Models. Technology-Specific AI is designed to solve AI-specific challenges such as vulnerability detection, behavior analysis, and types of detections that humans have a hard time with or are completely unable to see. In short: Generative AI creates data, whereas tech-specific AI analyzes and acts on data provided to it from an external source.
Why You Should Be Concerned
It’s important to understand the growth of cyberattacks over the past few years and the impact they have had globally. In 2021, cyberattacks cost businesses around $6.5 billion and affected roughly 800 million people worldwide. In 2024, we saw a massive surge in both cost and human impact. By this year, 2025, cyberattacks are estimated to cost a staggering $15 billion, with nearly 2 billion people impacted globally. What’s particularly alarming is the year-over-year increase in attack frequency and severity. In just three years, the growth rate has jumped from 10% to 50% annually. This shows us that attackers are becoming more aggressive and innovative. This trend illustrates why it’s no longer enough to rely on traditional methods of cybersecurity. AI-driven solutions are essential for addressing these rising threats in real time.
AI Threat vs. AI Security
We are not alone. Hackers are increasingly using AI to infiltrate networks by automating and enhancing their attack strategies. They deploy AI to craft highly personalized phishing emails, predict password patterns for cracking, and create adaptive malware that evolves to bypass traditional defenses. AI also enables rapid network reconnaissance to identify vulnerabilities and facilitate realistic social engineering through AI-powered chatbots.
The good news is that Managed Service Providers (MSPs) leverage AI to stay ahead of these threats by using AI-powered tools. Tools for real-time threat detection, automated incident response, and advanced endpoint protection. AI analyzes vast amounts of data to identify anomalies, block sophisticated phishing attempts, and detect suspicious behavior, such as lateral movement (which is like if a piece of software that’s malicious starts moving from one system to another) or privilege escalation (which would be using the account that is compromised to do more administrative tasks). Additionally, it enhances vulnerability management by prioritizing risks and deploying patches quickly, ensuring critical threats are addressed before hackers are able to exploit them.
What is AI’s Role In Cybersecurity
So, what is AI’s Role in Cybersecurity? AI is fundamentally transforming the way we approach cybersecurity. Its role is simple yet profound: To help us detect, prevent, and respond to threats faster and more accurately than ever before. For example, AI-driven tools can:
Detect phishing attempts by analyzing email language and structure, stopping threats before they reach employees.
Identify network intrusions by spotting anomalies in traffic patterns, even when attackers use sophisticated evasion techniques.
Provide actionable insights for incident response teams, helping businesses react faster and with precision.
You can think of AI as an always-on security analyst, tirelessly scanning for vulnerabilities, learning from every incident, and evolving its defenses as threats evolve. At BTS, we utilize several products that leverage AI to protect you! Those include Impersonation Protection, Email Security, Endpoint Protection and Managed Detection & Response (MDR). Contact Anthony or another BTS account manager to learn more!
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