In the past two years, major models in various industries have developed rapidly like mushrooms after rain, and artificial intelligence technology, industry, and application have ushered in a period of rapid iteration and exploration breakthroughs. At the 12th West Lake Debate · Digital Security Conference held recently in 2024, people from all walks of life discussed and exchanged ideas on how to apply artificial intelligence technology to empower digital network security. Participants believe that cybersecurity has entered the stage of artificial intelligence, and "AI+security" is the future development direction of the cybersecurity industry. At the same time, the double-edged sword effect of AI technology and the industry development environment need to be jointly cracked and improved by multiple parties. Network security has entered the stage of artificial intelligence. With the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, the contradiction between the complexity of data security and the limitations of traditional network security governance is becoming increasingly prominent. Digital security is facing unprecedented challenges. Empowering secure operations through AI is seen as a key link in developing new quality production forces. Wang Yukai, former deputy director of the E-government Expert Committee of the National Academy of Administration and academic member of the National Digital Economy Alliance, proposed that the digital economy plays a global and strategic role in the development of new quality productive forces, and the digital economy may become the most critical field in the development of new quality productive forces. Wu Shizhong, an academician of the CAS Member, said that in the past 30 years, network security can be roughly divided into three stages. The first 20 years or so was an IT driven stage, an era of interconnection of everything; The next 10 years are DT, which is a data-driven stage characterized by big data and cloud computing, pursuing data flow; Nowadays, we have entered the era of AI driven, and the huge wave of artificial intelligence has greatly changed the connotation and extension of security issues. Cao Yue, Director of the Financial Security Department of the National Information Technology Security Research Center, believes that future attacks, namely intelligent attacks, will increase the frequency of attacks, The expansion of AI will enhance the adversarial dimension of attack and defense, AI will also upgrade the intensity of network attack and defense confrontation. Anheng Information, which has participated in multiple major project network security work, has divided major event network security since 2008 into four development stages: individual warfare, comprehensive warfare, three-dimensional warfare, and AI warfare. Individual warfare roughly occurred between 2008 and 2015. In early cybersecurity protection, a single cybersecurity product combined with security services could provide basic protection for networks and information systems involved in major events; The comprehensive warfare period is roughly between 2016 and 2020, when the network environment of the competition has become complex and requires the use of powerful platform products such as network security situational awareness, combined with multi regional, online and offline security services, to ensure the safety and security of large-scale competitions; The three-dimensional warfare is roughly between 2021 and 2023. With the increase of network environment risks in major events, targeted strategies need to be formulated according to different network security threats, and corresponding security products and services need to be deployed in defense, monitoring, response, prediction, and other aspects to ensure the smooth progress of major events; Since September 2023, the major event network security work has entered the AI warfare stage. Fan Yuan, Chairman of Anheng Information, told Economic Reference Daily that in the current stage of network security work, AI has begun to play a diverse and crucial role, not only changing the way and situation of cybersecurity warfare, but also having a profound impact on victory and defeat. At this stage, the first priority is the high level of digitalization in network security scenarios. Digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, digital twins, and the Internet of Things are widely used, and traditional security measures cannot effectively cope with them; Next is the automation of attacks and defense. AI can be used for automated network attacks, making them more covert, fast, and difficult to defend against. The secure vertical domain large model is based on machine learning and big data analysis technologies, which can automatically learn network attack behavior patterns and quickly respond to and respond to various new network threats. Therefore, using AI to AI and managing AI has become a necessary option. Breakthroughs have been made in exploring applications related to the use of AI to assist in network defense. Many explorations have been conducted both domestically and internationally, and achievements have been made. The Network Security Assistant launched by Microsoft in the United States provides users with generative and automated network security artificial intelligence services. After a year of operation last year, the response, evaluation, and defense time for security incidents can be compressed from hours to days to minutes. AI empowerment has greatly improved domestic network security defense capabilities and disposal efficiency. Anheng Information released the "Heng Brain · Safety Vertical Region Large Model" in August last year, achieving the first application of domestic AI safety vertical region large models in international large-scale competitions. During the Hangzhou Asian Games, based on this model and the auxiliary support of the MSS security operation platform, the complex and repetitive work in the security operation process was effectively solved. It is understood that Anheng Information has made the application of AI technology a primary strategy. Fan Yuan introduced that in the past 8 months, Anheng Information has made a lot of attempts and practical explorations in the application of artificial intelligence in digital security, and the company's digital security products and services are undergoing earth shaking changes. Taking data classification and grading+AI as an example, The application of AI technology has increased the efficiency of data classification and grading by 30 times. "This is not only a simple efficiency improvement, but also a profound industry transformation, showing us the huge potential and broad prospects of AI in the field of digital security." In April of this year, Anheng Information just released a data classification and grading solution Eight major AI products, including AI firewall and Tianqiong artificial intelligence security operation platform. During this conference, Anheng Information teamed up with Huawei to release the Ascension Hengnao inference all-in-one machine, using the Ascension AI cluster to provide a foundation for Hengnao, accelerating the innovation and implementation of large models throughout the entire process. Hailiang Group actively explores the construction concept of "AI+security". Sun Wen, Minister of the Digital Innovation Department of the group, introduced that using AI to replace manual work makes the analysis of security alarms more intelligent and significantly improves efficiency. Hailiang Group has found that in the process of combining AI with data security, The AI performance exceeded expectations, and the automated sorting of over 4000 fields in pilot scenarios can reach over 90%, with recognition accuracy increasing from 50% to 85.8%. What is the prospect of applying AI to network security? Wang Jian, a partner at Ernst&Young (China) Enterprise Consulting Co., Ltd., stated that threat monitoring and corresponding work, malware detection, user behavior analysis, identity verification and access control, phishing monitoring, automated intelligence threats, fraud detection, and data leakage protection are all potential areas for big model applications. Wang Xin, Deputy Secretary General of Hangzhou Artificial Intelligence Society and President of Anheng Information Research Institute, believes that, AI's true ability for security has only been utilized by less than 5%. Over the past year, The exploration between AI and safety has evolved from intelligent question answering to assisted driving, and will soon enter semi-automatic driving and fully automated driving. At this conference, a consensus among industry insiders is that "AI+security" will definitely be the direction for the future development of the cybersecurity industry. At the same time, professionals have also given widespread attention to the double-edged sword effect of AI technology and the industry development environment, and have put forward many positive suggestions for the development of "AI+security". Hu Ruimin, Chairman of the Cyberspace Security Working Committee of the New Engineering Alliance of the Ministry of Education, Vice Chairman of the Hangzhou Artificial Intelligence Association, and Foreign Academician of the Russian National Academy of Engineering, believes that in the short and medium term, there are still many shortcomings in large model technology, and it is necessary to use human-machine collaboration to truly play a role. In the long run, it is important to carefully promote the autonomy of the machine while being prepared for safety. Multiple experts suggest that in the face of complex and ever-changing international situations and growing cyber security threats, it is urgent to strengthen the security protection of critical information infrastructure. ”The existing vulnerabilities have been filled, and new vulnerabilities will be discovered. The existing technology has achieved a relatively stable balance between attack and defense, and new technological innovations will shift the battlefield to new areas Zhao Houlin, the former secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union, said that "attack and defense in the security field will exist for a long time." In this regard, Wu Jiangxing, an academician of the CAE Member, believes that network security is the first priority for both digital industrialization and industrial digitalization. However, cybersecurity defense presents a situation similar to that of a "mole fighting" game, which involves pressing a gourd to float a gourd and hitting a mole that appears. He pointed out that in response to the limitations of traditional network security governance, we need to start from the source technology of the digital industry and the design security of digital products. Only by promoting the transformation of the underlying driving paradigm of the digital ecosystem and empowering endogenous security can we build a strong barrier between network and data space security. From the discussions among the attending experts, the reporter found that the "AI+security" industry not only needs to meet the market's requirements for network security technology and product safety, reliability, and simplicity, but also needs to find the best balance between user willingness to bear costs and the surge in enterprise research and development costs. Therefore, the challenge is not small. Wu Jiangxing pointed out that in response to the shortage of cybersecurity talents, according to the prediction of the Central Cyberspace Administration, China will need 2.35 million cybersecurity talents by 2027. However, currently, there are less than 30000 graduates per year from more than 100 cybersecurity related colleges in China. There is a huge "scissors gap" between cybersecurity talents and the number of people who create or unintentionally create vulnerabilities. In the international field, Wu Shizhong stated that the security governance of artificial intelligence has become a coordinated issue in the game of great powers. Over 70 countries have issued nearly 100 strategic measures and legal documents on security governance within five years. Zhao Houlin stated that digital security is a global concern and we need to strengthen global cooperation, encourage and strengthen international cooperation. (Lai Xin She)