Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are technologies that play a significant role in data protection. Protecting the data of individuals and organizations is essential in the digital age, and AI and machine learning can advance data protection strategies in a way that would not be possible with more traditional programs.
Key Takeaways
- AI and machine learning can protect consumer identities.
- Machine learning can protect data from exposure to data breaches and other threats.
- The benefits of AI identity protection include proactive threat detection, better accuracy, and reduced risks.
What is AI-Powered Identity Protection?
AI is a technology that allows computers and programs to simulate human intelligence and decision-making. Machine learning is a type of AI that uses algorithms to recognize patterns in data and apply that knowledge to future analysis and decisions.
Using AI, businesses can enhance identity protection for their customers. AI can analyze and monitor customer behavior to establish norms and then look for deviations from those behavioral patterns to identify potential threats.
For example, financial institutions may use AI and machine learning to identify unusual transactions on a customer’s account. Businesses may also strengthen account security beyond user login credentials and two-factor authentication (2FA) by analyzing locations, devices, and user behavior whenever someone tries to access an account.
Using machine learning, AI continues to expand its knowledge base as it analyzes data sets. Over time, AI can get better at identifying threats and responding faster than human analysts. This can help organizations and individuals prevent identity theft or act quickly when fraud has occurred.
How Does Machine Learning Protect Your Data?
Machine learning can use its analytical capabilities to help protect your personally identifiable information (PII) from getting exposed by a hack or data breach in the first place.
Government agencies, private companies, and other organizations can use machine learning to help protect the data they collect about citizens, users, and customers. For example, businesses can use AI to analyze data from past data breaches to find patterns and predict future threats or system weaknesses that need to be fixed.
Machine learning can also be used to help detect threats in real time. For example, machine learning can watch over a system and identify attempts to access or use that system fraudulently. In one use case, a business could use machine learning to help AI detect suspicious use of their systems by monitoring network traffic, user behavior, and tasks performed in the system.
Scammers are also using AI to generate new types of scams and make old ones more sophisticated. New security AI tools are needed to combat these threats and respond to them in a way that human analysts might not be able to do effectively.
Benefits of AI-Powered Identity Protection
There are several benefits of AI-powered identity protection.
Proactive Approach
Victims of fraud and identity theft often don’t discover they’re victims until well after the crime has already occurred. And organizations that experience data breaches commonly don’t know there’s an issue until the data has already been exposed.
However, AI and machine learning promote a proactive approach to data security that can help identify threats before they occur. This technology can study data patterns to learn where organizations and individuals are most vulnerable and flag threats in real time. This can potentially save organizations and individuals time, effort, and money by avoiding fraud and cybercrime in the first place.
Increased Accuracy
Machine learning’s continuous learning capabilities can translate to heightened accuracy when it comes to threat detection. Identity theft and fraud often succeed because consumers, organizations, and human analysts are subject to human error and are also unable to continuously monitor every single place where fraud can occur.
AI can potentially achieve higher accuracy by simultaneously automating many security processes and by analyzing data sets faster than a human or a simple scripted program can. Over time as it learns from its own analysis, successes, and failures, machine learning can continue to improve its accuracy.
Reduced Risk
Using AI and machine learning to proactively detect threats at higher rates of accuracy can reduce the risks of data breaches and fraud by stopping them before they occur, or quickly responding to them when they happen.
For organizations, data breaches and fraud can severely damage financial security, public reputation, and even future viability. The organization may suffer economic losses as it investigates data incidents, fixes security issues, makes restitution to customers, and even pays fines. For individuals, having PII exposed and becoming the victim of fraud or identity theft can have long-term negative consequences for economic stability, creditworthiness, and even physical or emotional health.
It is essential to use the best available technology in order to reduce these risks.
Bottom Line
Integrating AI and machine learning into identity protection and data security can significantly advance the business of protecting individuals and organizations alike. AI solutions can monitor systems and data patterns, identify threats, and respond to unauthorized behavior faster and more accurately than traditional methods.
As time goes on, the benefits of using AI and machine learning in these areas will likely become more profound, with innovations enhancing the security and efficiency of identity and data protection. But don’t wait until then – start protecting your identity now. IdentityIQ identity monitoring offers cutting-edge solutions designed to detect and help prevent identity theft, ensuring your data and identity remain secure.