Cyber awareness is vital in today’s increasingly digital world because it enables business continuity, safe online behavior and protection against threats.

As online threats, such as ransomware, phishing, hacking and malware, continue wreaking havoc, an increased security posture is needed through cyber awareness, according to Shawn Henry (pictured), chief security officer of CrowdStrike Inc.

CrowdStrike’s Shawn Henry talks to theCUBE about cyber awareness being an incredible part of cybersecurity.

“The word I want everybody to just take and scribble it on their head, it’s awareness,” Henry stated. “I think that as citizens, this awareness level is about knowing where you’re getting your information from, checking your sources. Don’t just look at a tweet that somebody put out and retweet it or a Facebook post and send it out to all your friends without understanding if it is valid or not? It’s our responsibility to ensure that we are assessing information, ensuring it’s valid before we are becoming part of the process to fan the flames.”

Henry spoke with theCUBE Research’s Rebecca Knight and Dave Vellante at Fal.Con, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the importance of cyber awareness in today’s digital landscape. (* Disclosure below.)

Through the cyber awareness lens

Cybersecurity comes in handy when it comes to asymmetric attack defense. As a result, cyber awareness is needed since it triggers a cultural shift toward safety by understanding potential risks, Henry pointed out. 

“Cyber’s the great equalizer, and it’s an opportunity in an asymmetric world for those that might be less powerful from a military perspective to gain a significant advantage because they can impact the military might, the infrastructure of large powers,” he said. “It’s a magical tool in the belt of some of these smaller, less sophisticated governments or even those that might be sympathetic to the government, not necessarily working on behalf of the government, these hacktivist groups.”

When it comes to AI in cybersecurity, it should be viewed as a double-edged sword because it presents advantages, such as enhanced threat detection and automation of responses. Consequently, it presents cons, such as amplifying deepfakes through large language models, according to Henry. 

“AI can help and can hurt,” he explained. “AI is a huge advancement. We’ve been using AI for 10 years to be able to analyze and evaluate data that might take humans days or weeks, they can do in minutes. Conversely, AI in this concept of deep fakes has allowed adversaries to get advantage and lay people to become more sophisticated because they now have the technical skills. It goes both ways. I think overall, it’s more helpful for security people at this time.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE Research’s coverage of Fal.Con: 

(* Disclosure: CrowdStrike Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE