Notable cyberattacks, or the threat of one, are becoming a near daily headline in the news.

Within the past seven days, Ukraine’s top mobile operator reported being hit by a major cyberattack during the country’s ongoing conflict with Russia, Toyota Motor Co. revealed a second breach in less than month, and the U.S. government issued a warning that hackers backed by the Chinese military were attempting to infiltrate critical infrastructure, including power, water utilities and transportation networks.

What this increasingly perilous landscape means for enterprise IT was the focus of a day-long discussion as part of the ongoing Dell Technologies Inc. event series, “Navigating the Road to Cyber Resiliency,” a special summit on December 12. Cybersecurity experts from Dell and other industry leaders participated in an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, and explored current strategies and best practices to safeguard the digital landscape. (* Disclosure below.)

“The overall market impact of cyberattacks could be $3 trillion in 2023, and that’s growing in the double digits annually,” said SiliconANGLE industry analyst Dave Vellante, during the event’s opening discussion. “The bad guys are automating, really leaning into AI and automation, so you’ve got to respond.”

Vellante was joined in the segment by fellow analyst John Furrier:

Here are three key insights you might have missed during the event:

1. The security impact of AI will be good and not so good.

Many of the Summit participants saw advancement in AI technology as a “good news/bad news” scenario. On the positive side, security organizations can take full advantage of AI’s ability to improve effectiveness by being able to rapidly analyze asymmetrical events and spot trouble.

“I get excited about the prospects of AI and what it could potentially do to write that asymmetry that exists,” said John Scimone, president and chief security officer at Dell, in an interview with theCUBE. “There’s a newly tremendous potential for security teams broadly to leverage the power of the technology to become more efficient, to become more effective.”

Here’s theCUBE’s complete video interview with John Scimone:

There are also promising signs that AI can help overworked security operations centers, which are dealing with a volume of cyberattacks that are having an impact. According to one study by Deloitte Consulting, nine out of 10 organizations reported one cyber incident or breach in 2022.

“Many security operations centers throughout the world today are using AI for accelerated information,” said Wendi Whitmore, senior vice president of Unit 42 at Palo Alto Networks Inc., in an appearance during the event. “They’ve been able to offload some of the workflows so they can focus their limited people resources on the highest criticality tasks and those that require human analytics.”

Here’s theCUBE’s complete video interview with Wendi Whitmore:

Despite the potential benefits of AI, bad faith actors are adopting the technology as well and integrating it effectively into popular threat models, such as those driving ransomware attacks.

“Ransomware gangs are being able to use AI to be smarter, better automate some of their capabilities or even just write an email more effectively,” said Elizabeth Green, EMEA advisory and cyber lead at Dell, during a Summit discussion. “There might’ve been typos in the past, but with AI, you might be able to get a real linguistic advantage if you’re writing as a state actor from a different country in English.”

Here’s theCUBE’s complete video interview with Elizabeth Green:

2. Ransomware remains a persistent problem that won’t go away.

Not every ransomware attack is made public, which is why the numbers being reported for 2023 are particularly alarming. Research compiled by MIT professor Stuart Madnick found there were more ransomware attacks reported in the first nine months of 2023 than in all of 2022.

“People are struggling today to even protect their mission-critical applications against ransomware,” said Christophe Bertrand, practice director of data management and analytics at Enterprise Strategy Group, in comments during a panel discussion. “The biggest issue is recoverability in a timely fashion. You can only do that if you’ve really thought through all of the possibilities and have all the right technologies in place.”

Here’s theCUBE’s complete video interview with Christophe Bertrand, who was joined by theCUBE analysts Zeus Kerravala, Rob Strechay and Dave Vellante:

The volume of ransomware attacks has forced many organizations to adopt new safeguards and seek the support of security solution providers, such as Kyndryl Inc., which can leverage data collected over many years to pinpoint potential vulnerabilities.

“Organizations are being hammered by ransomware,” said Kris Lovejoy, global security and resilience practice leader at Kyndryl, during an interview with theCUBE. “We’ve got this massive body of evidence that points to if there was a security incident, this is why it happened, if there was a data center outage, this is why it happened. This informs the strategy that we take to our clients.”

Here’s theCUBE’s complete video interview with Kris Lovejoy:

The impact of ransomware attacks has been acutely felt in small towns and cities across the U.S. This has put IT leaders, such as the chief information security officer of Gilbert, Arizona, on high alert, since any disruption could impact local citizens who depend on city services.

“People have very much become digital citizens, and they’re used to that immediate response they get from doing everything online and digitally,” said the Town of Gilbert’s Tony Bryson, during his discussion on theCUBE. “When we have some type of physical solution that experiences some type of disruption, the expectation is that we still have to get that recovered as quickly as possible so that our customers are getting the same type of response as they do from all of those digital interactions that they have.”

By dedicating resources to modern infrastructure, embracing proactive cybersecurity measures and cultivating key alliances, municipalities such as Gilbert are setting the stage for a future that is both more secure and interconnected.

Here’s theCUBE’s complete video interview with Tony Bryson:

And here’s a look at Gilbert’s smart-city evolution:

3. Cybersecurity is a process that requires a collective effort.

A common theme expressed by many of the participants in the Cyber Resiliency Summit centered on the collective nature of cybersecurity work. Whether it involves teams working together inside an organization’s security operations center to combat a threat or a company willingly sharing the impact of a breach, the cybersecurity field is more effective when there is a collective effort.

“Customers are learning that they can’t go on this journey alone — they need help,” said Rob Emsley (pictured), director of data protection marketing at Dell, in conversation with theCUBE. “Whether or not it’s with global alliances or global system integrators, whether or not that be people that work with Dell or just system integrators that can help customers, they’re going to those sources. The good thing is that we’ve seen a year-over-year set of changes that customers are starting to realize.”

Here’s theCUBE’s complete video interview with Rob Emsley:

A prime example of how alliances are playing a role in strengthening cybersecurity can be seen in Project Fort Zero, a Dell-led industry initiative to deliver a fully configured, end-to-end zero-trust solution that meets all 152 requirements outlined by the U.S. Department of Defense. The initiative involves the work of over 35 partners, according to Herb Kelsey, Project Fort Zero lead at Dell, in an appearance during the event.

“What’s happening is that [zero trust] is a collection of best practices,” Kelsey said. “That’s why we need an ecosystem — you need to be able to bring all of those capabilities together and make sure that they’re integrated at the same time and inter-operating, working together to bring about the security that zero trust promises for an organization. For now, it’s been looking at all of our capabilities internally and making sure that we’re supporting a zero-trust framework.”

Here’s theCUBE’s complete video interview with Herb Kelsey:

A number of companies have partnered with Dell to strengthen cybersecurity operations and bolster data-driven infrastructures. One of these is CrowdStrike Inc., which announced an alliance with Dell in March.

“The partnership with Dell is a special go-to-market effort for us,” said Daniel Bernard, chief business officer of CrowdStrike, in an interview with theCUBE. “If you look at Dell … an enterprise leader and a leader in all segments of customers, where do customers start their cybersecurity journey? It starts at the endpoint. Coupling these technologies together … it just makes sense.”

Here’s theCUBE’s complete video interview with Daniel Bernard, who was joined by Rahul Tikoo, senior vice president and general manager of the Client Solutions Group at Dell:

To watch more of theCUBE’s Cyber Resiliency Summit event, here’s our complete event video playlist:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the “Cyber Resiliency Summit.” Neither Dell Technologies Inc., the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE