Cybersecurity needs actual intelligence before artificial intelligence
Cybersecurity needs actual intelligence before artificial intelligence
Publish Date: 2026-06-24 05:08:00
Source Domain: www.miningweekly.com
In a Security Operations Centre, incidents rarely arrive neatly labelled. Analysts do not get a single perfect alert saying, “This is the problem. Here is the business impact. Here is the safest response.” What they usually see is something far messier: an unusual login, a file moving where it should not, a strange endpoint, an email that looks almost legitimate, or a user action that could be a simple mistake, or a sign that someone is exploiting pressure, trust, and timing.
For DigitalShield, a South African cybersecurity services provider, this is where AI has become increasingly useful. It can connect signals faster, cut through alert noise, and support threat detection, investigation, and response. Given the pace of modern attacks, no serious security team can afford to ignore it.
“I do not believe the future of cybersecurity is artificial intelligence on its own. In a SOC, the better model is AI²: actual intelligence and artificial intelligence. Human judgement comes first. AI strengthens it,” says Ray Hall, SOC Manager at DigitalShield.
That is because cybersecurity depends on interpretation. A tool can tell you something unusual has happened, but people still need to work out whether it is a genuine risk, what it means for the business, and how to respond without unnecessary disruption.
Actual intelligence is the analyst’s understanding of the environment: which systems matter most, which user roles carry greater risk, which alerts need escalation, and which events need more context. It is the judgement that separates a quick reaction from the right response.
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