The Cybersecurity Startup Fighting Fire With Fire

Source Domain: cairoscene.com

Through a Talent-AI collaboration model, Snappers is addressing workforce shortage and AI-generated attacks in the same breath.

What happens when AI-programmed malware starts programming its own viruses? As the world accelerates in the direction of everything AI, this risk has perhaps been overlooked, but in our digitalised world it can quickly become an apocalyptic harbinger. Cyberattacks already cost the global economy trillions of dollars each year; by some measures, it’s more profitable than the global drug trade. With weaponised AI introduced into the equation, the potential for damage becomes even more troubling.

“In the coming months, and definitely in the coming years, there will be very sophisticated cyberattacks using AI,” says Hisham Magdy, CEO and co-founder of Snappers, an AI-powered cybersecurity startup founded in 2023. “Viruses are no longer programmed just by humans. In a cyberattack, AI is now capable of making new codes that no one has before in order to mitigate the defensive parameters present in the infrastructure it is attacking, and operating them without an internet connection.”

At the same time as AI-fuelled cyberthreats become more rampant, there is a global shortage of cybersecurity talent that is felt acutely in Egypt, where Snappers chiefly operates. “Since Covid and the AI revolution that has happened, there is higher demand for cyber talents to fulfil the big digital transformation happening in the global ecosystem,” explains Magdy. “In Egypt, it’s even worse because many of our talents end up leaving and going to the surrounding regions.”

To solve both of these challenges at once, Snappers decided to fight fire with fire by using AI as the antidote to the AI threat. “The need has emerged for a company specialised in cybersecurity services using AI products that can fill the gap in this domain,” says Magdy, adding, “you cannot fight a tank with a pistol.”

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