"Leveraging Business Intelligence for Effective Threat Detection: Minimizing

Cybersecurity Expertise Requirements"

KEYWORDS – DATA ANALYTICS; RISK MANAGEMENT; STRATEGIC

INTEGRATION; CLOUD COMPUTING; INFORMATION SECURITY.

Introduction –
In the current context of globalization and digital technologies, information can be defined as a
critical asset in the modern globalized and digital world. Beyond 2020, as part of various
international academic conferences and organizations, countries will always seek to make
choices that benefit their well-being. It has been established that each organization requires
strategic approaches to thrive. Similarly, organizations need business strategies to efficiently
analyze large amounts of data for strategic purposes. It has been established that such strategies
help communicators effectively handle information. Paradoxically, however, despite these
advanced processes, organizations face enormous cybersecurity challenges. BI systems, due to
the impact of big data, are particularly vulnerable. This paper describes how BI systems can be
secured from cybercrime through effective cybersecurity measures. Management strategies
should aim to enable organizations to gain a competitive advantage over others.

The argument put forward here asserts that through strategic integration, organizations can
enhance their resilience. Complete cybersecurity measures should encompass BI assurance
systems to protect all types of information within a company. Organizations that operate within
the law and adopt competitive strategies will maintain a strong position in the market. In this
current era of globalization and digital technology, information can be defined as a strategic
asset. It is undeniable that in contemporary society, information holds extraordinary importance
and is of strategic value in operations.

Predictive analytics will actually allow you to know that a security breach is going to occur
before it does. Much like radar that tells you where and when an adversary is arriving;
sophisticated analytics indicate when and where attacks may happen. That will alert your
business to sound the alarm and raise the drawbridge and get your soldiers ready. Predictive
analytics will help you outsmart hackers and come out on top rather than finding a compromise
after the fight has already been lost. The IT team is probably working full-time to develop
creative, intelligent solutions as the number and sophistication of intrusions grow. The computer
community has been looking for methods to keep sensitive information out of the hands of evil
people. Emerging assaults, however, randomize their signatures, making them nearly challenging
to identify and fight against. Predictive analytics has the potential to assist organizations. In
proactively identifying security problems before they cause harm. Companies can predict future
occurrences and optimize prevention by concentrating on the “infection stage”.

1.1 Real-time Data Analysis: With the evolving threat environment, the need for a balanced
approach to cyber security is emerging. Organizations need to process and analyze data as
quickly as possible, sense trends, and detect anomalies. Prospering the use of predictive analytics
involves linking similar events and identifying relationships and correlations that reveal what
worked and what did not. Researchers can intervene and start researching even when something
abnormal occurs. Predictive analytics can be applied to examining real-time. It Is now time to
collect data from multiple sources to identify frequently used attack vectors, for instance, and
erect defences beforehand.

1.2 Big Data compatibility: Managing massive volumes of data is a big issue for cybersecurity
teams. Screening and making sense of massive data, particularly unstructured data, may be
challenging in the same way. Massive streams can originate from a variety of sources, including
databases, applications, and devices. These must first be processed before they can be examined.
Organizations require a mechanism to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Luckily,
predictive analytics technologies flourish on massive data. In contrast, the more inputs provided,
the more information users may glean from them to generate reasonably precise forecasts.

1.3 Automation makes less load: When predictive analytics and machine learning are combined,
analysts may gain critical insights into risks much faster. Through proactively screening out
redundancies, classifying information, and maybe even selecting which occurrences to prioritize,
machine learning can alleviate the strain on analysts’ shoulders. ML also decreases human error,
which is expected owing to a large amount of data that needs to be processed. As a result,
predictive analytics systems powered by machine learning may provide more actionable insights.

Literature Review –

Ogborigbo, Justine & Sobowale, Odunayo & Iyere, Emmanuel & Owoade, Oluwayemisi &
Samson, Adeyemo & Egerson, Joshua. (2024) outlines the crucial role of BI in organizations
regarding competitive advantages obtained from the data acquired. A BI system provides tools
and methods to collect, share, process, and report data to support decision making. Business
intelligence depends on data warehouse, which utilizes and integrated data stored from various
sources and maintain consistency, ready them available for analysis process. During this period,
with the ever-increasing importance of ML and AI in enhancing the capability of cybersecurity
threat detection on one hand and increased digitalization of business on the other, there has been
an increase in frequency and sophistication of cyber-attacks that warranted ever-improving threat
detection systems. (IJMTST, 2023) With rapid digitization pervading the world, data breaches
are becoming increasingly costly. As he said, detecting cyber threats by human manpower
through traditional methods has become very costly and quite impractical. With more and more
attacks taking place, one cannot depend on human expertise since it is time-consuming and prone
to errors.

Machine learning offers an effective alternative for detecting and mitigating such attacks. Kaur,
Baljit & Singh, Vikram. (2020) In the modern world, data make them competitive and proactive
in their approach. Business intelligence tools are used for collecting, processing, and reporting ,
which help in decision-making. The center of a BI system is the data warehouse, which is a
centralized repository integrating information from various sources and assuring consistency of
data so that these are available for analyses. BI tools, such as data mining and OLAP, play an
important role in threat detection. Such patterns may reveal potential security threats or
suspicious behavior that could not be conveniently detected. Online analytical processing is an
effective analysis tool that helps for alteration of the data to support the strategic decision-
making and operational processes of the organizations.

Hong, Wei & Yin, Jiao & You, Mingshan & Wang, Hua & Cao, Jinli & Li, Jianxin & Liu, Ming.
(2022) BI has a lot of analysis tools and systems that make your complex data in the charts form
graphical representation, and dashboards that supports their hypothesis in their decision-making
process. This visualization capability enhances the organization’s ability to detect and respond to
cybersecurity threats at higher speed and in a more efficient manner without an extensive
cybersecurity background. Machine learning has emerged as one of the critical cybersecurity
measures wherein recognition, anticipation, and prevention of cyber-attacks form a great part of
its application. It is highly utilized in discovering patterns in the security logs well before
the actual attack happens. Other applications involve virus attack detection, anomaly
detection, and cluster-based user profiling, therefore improving cybersecurity monitoring.

Over the last decade, machine learning has become a very popular efficient methodology for
dealing with cyber vulnerabilities and their counteracting measures in data analytics. Based on
intrusion detection systems, cyber analytics have been broadly classified into three categories:
signature-based detection, anomaly-based detection, and hybrid methods. Each of these plays an
important role in finding threats and controlling them in order to enable the system to detect both
known and unknown cyber risks. Predictive analytics in cyber security uses a wide variety of
advanced models and techniques that predict and probably prevent possible threats before they
affect systems. The basis of this approach is the machine learning algorithms, which are
comprised of supervised and unsupervised algorithms. In this supervised learning model, specific
data is used for training purposes in order to identify known illicit behaviors.On the other hand,
unsupervised learning identifies and recognizes abnormal behaviours which if exist may be
an indication of a threat. The ability of a system to detect suspicious activities is imperative for
timely prevention of threats and strengthening of the security status of any firm. One more
important component of the environment of predictive analytics is the usage of statistical
algorithms. These algorithms can draw on data to make predictions of future occurrences by
understanding historical patterns and behaviors. In addition to that, this technique helps not only
in predictive modeling of possible threats but also in the building of a better-fit risk model, which
can be useful for improved preparation within organizations.

User behavior analysis provides more value to predictive analytics through the study of user
activities to spot suspicious events that may be from inside threats or stolen credentials. In this
approach, the default protections would not easily identify anomalies. Moreover, anomaly
detection systems are used for the detection of the anomalies in the behavioral patterns of the
network traffic and access log before the occurrence of the attack. While such benefits include
the early detection of threats, better resource management, and a faster response to threats,
predictive analytics also have challenges in real-world applications. Forecasting models are only
as good as the data that they are applied to; this is a saying often used in statistics. Poor quality
and/or scope can yield erroneous predictions, and cyber-threat nature is continually changing
requiring regular updates to the models. The model is a guarantee to continue to be effective if it
is maintained and periodically upgraded for its application. In addition, the integration of
predictive analytics into other infrastructures already in place will be helpful to the organization.
1.1 Spam Detection: Spam detection is one of the main features of machine learning-based
intrusion detection systems, used for spam detection. Spam is a technical term referring to
unsolicited mass mail which is also related to electronic messages. It is also referred to by other
names as junk mail. Spammers use various communications mediums to spread unwanted and
undesirable digital materials. It usually comes in the form of unwanted and unnecessary emails
received through the internet. Spams are most commonly used for business purposes and are
usually offensive. Spam messages, however, can be disastrous for both the system as well as the
user. For spammers, in this case, it is to transmit malicious code, perform phishing scams and
earn money.

1.2 Phishing Detection: Cyber-attacks are quite prevalent these days and their occurrence has
increased dramatically. Phishing is one of the most common and interesting social engineering
attacks that perpetrators use to steal private data. At many times, Credit card numbers and login
details are also targeted. The concept spoofing belief is used by phishing fraudsters to deceive
the victim by posing as a trusted and well-known source. They use it mainly for impersonate
reputable organisations' websites so that victims can readily trust and disclose their personal
information. Phishing attacks also use malware to steal system cookies and records keystrokes.
As a result, phishing assault detection becomes one of the primary features of machine learning-
based intrusion detection systems.

1.3 Malware Detection: Malware refers to a term used to depict a group of malicious software
that include viruses, spyware, keyloggers, and ransomware. Malware is a type of computer code
designed by cyber-criminals with the aim of creating havoc to the victim's system or
unauthorized access to any network. In general, it is a coded file sent out by cyber-criminals
through several communications tactics, which include email, and it always needs the victim to
execute the virus. Intruders create several forms of malware programmes for numerous goals,
and they are frequently employed to compromise the financial data of businesses and
organizations. Researchers have developed machine learning techniques for both malware
detection and classification into several classes or families. Hence, one of the essential
components of machine learning-based intrusion detection systems is malware detection.

1.4 Detection of DoS Attacks: Confidentiality, Integrity, And Availability (CIA) are the three
fundamental elements of security or cyber-security. The CIA triad is a combination of three
elements that are considered basic to any system or network's security. The most significant
aspect of all three is availability. Availability literally refers to the character that is to be utilized
or acquired, but in the context of information security, it ensures that legitimate users have quick
and reliable access to information and other resources. Denial of Service (DoS) attacks are
utilized by cyber intruders to disrupt the system's function and users' ability to access system
resources. By flooding a server with traffic, DoS assaults are used to make online system
resources unavailable to its users. Teardrop attacks, flooding attacks, IP fragmentation attacks,
protocol attacks, and application-based attacks are all examples of DoS attacks. To detect DoS
assaults, researchers employed a range of machine learning strategies. Therefore, detection of
such attacks forms a crucial characteristic of machine learning-based intrusion detection
frameworks.
1.5 Misuse Detection: Misuse detection is the most significant component of machine learning-
based intrusion detection systems. Misuse detection ensures that all cyber-attacks known by an
intrusion detection system are detected. An intrusion detection system is already aware of the
type of these attacks and has signatures for them in its database of support. These existing
signatures are used to analyze and detect new assaults. As a result, detection systems that only
have this feature face the challenge of detecting unexpected assaults whose signatures are not in
the supporting database.

1.6 Anomaly Detection: The detection or identification of zero-day attacks (unknown attacks) is
a difficult problem, and one of the major features addressed by machine learning-based
approaches. The database behind the framework has no record of activity for zero-day attack
types. With its know-how and experience, an intelligent machine learning framework learns lots
of attacks and attempt to predict what class they belong to. Hence, a machine learning-based
intrusion detection system must be able to identify zero-day attacks. This is critical in ensuring
that a machine learning-based intrusion detection framework is appropriate for use in an
installation scenario.

1.7 Implementation Complexity: Just by the name itself it shows the list of all the complexities
which must be considered during the whole process of implementation. It defines all of the
complexity parameters which researchers, scientists and other shareholder take into
consideration while developing a machine learning-based intrusion detection system. It involves
processing power, amount of training data, working complexity of the framework, complexity of
algorithm implementation overall cost of the framework, and any other resources needed, among
others. As a consequence, implementation complexity is an important aspect to review when
assessing a machine learning-based intrusion detection system, and it has been factored into our
calculation.

1.8 Accuracy: This is the measure for the degree of accuracy and precision of any computation or
process in relation to the right standard. It is one of the most impressive features of machine
learning algorithms. The success of the proposed machine learning-based frameworks in
machine learning is measured based on the ability they have towards the correct outputs they
produced. Precision, Sensitivity, Specificity, Area Under Curve, and more are used to evaluate it.
It describes how correct a machine learning-based framework is in comparison to other
frameworks or techniques.

Problem statement –

The rapid changes in the digital age also mean that organisation’s exposure to cybercrime risks in
the form of data compromises, cyber-attacks and other forms are on the rise. Even though the
traditional elements of practicing cyber security do work, they tend to involve a lot of expert
knowledge and skill sets that are not available to most firms. Businesses become dependent on
cybersecurity a professional which forms a gap in effectiveness in dealing with the threats
making sure that defences are reactive when they should be anticipatory.

There is an increase in the use of business intelligence (BI) tools throughout industries in the
course of data analysis and supporting decision making. However, exploring the use BI proves
that this is not the case as the use of BI for the detection of threats is still in its early stages
particularly looking at the use of BI for the detection of threats by individuals with little expert
knowledge. The issue is how BI systems designed for use as business solutions can be applied to
identify and manage cybersecurity risks to the extent that no specialist knowledge in
cybersecurity is required.

Thus this study seeks to find how business intelligence can be applied in threat detection
processes to assist organizations with minimal cyber security skills to detect threat whenever
there is a need to use such tools for instance are in the middle of investigation activities, the use
of BI should assist in anticipating the threat, and more importantly the slipperiness toward which
such threats can shake a civilization.

Research Questions

Primary Questions -

How can business intelligence (BI) tools be effectively utilized for threat detection in
organizations without requiring extensive cybersecurity expertise?

Secondary Questions –
 What are the key features of BI tools that can assist in identifying and mitigating
cybersecurity threats?
 How can BI be integrated with existing cybersecurity measures to improve threat
detection and response?
 What types of data and analytics are most effective in detecting potential security threats
using BI tools?
 How does the use of BI tools in threat detection compare to traditional cybersecurity
methods in terms of ease of use and effectiveness for non-experts?

Objective –
The primary aim of this research is to investigate how organizational capacity in regard to threat
detection could be expanded through business intelligence (BI) tools, especially in organizations
that do not have a very proficient key in cyber security. The study seeks to determine what
aspects and capabilities of BI tools are particularly effective in detecting and preventing threats.
It will explore the ways in which BI can complement the current protective measures in place
against malicious occurrences in organizations, focusing more on the non-experts.

Also, the study will assess the use of BI tools in predicting or recognizing possible cybersecurity
threats using data analytic, anomaly detection, and predictive model settings. Approaches of
reducing the level of expertise on the area of cyber security that is needed for threat detection
processes through BI systems will be outlined. The study will further present BI tools that will
assist organizations in threats anticipation and response management without complicated
technical knowledge. The paper will go further to identify the possible barriers, restrictions, and
challenges to the use of BI for threat detection as well as provide recommendations that will
enhance the BI use.
DATA AND VARIABLES – SOURCE, DESTINATION, PROTOCOL, TIME, LENGTH
METHODOLOGY –

Popular BI Tools - Several BI tools are particularly relevant for cybersecurity applications:
Tableau: Offers interactive dashboards that visualize data trends, making it easier to spot
anomalies.
Power BI: Integrates with various data sources and provides real-time analytics, allowing
organizations to monitor security metrics effectively.

QlikView: Enables users to create custom reports and visualizations, facilitating the
identification of unusual patterns in data.

Case Study: Financial Institution Using Power BI

A financial institution implemented Power BI to monitor transaction data in real-time. By
utilizing machine learning algorithms integrated within Power BI, the institution detected
fraudulent transactions before they were processed, significantly reducing financial losses. This
case illustrates the practical application of BI tools in enhancing cybersecurity measures.

Comparative Analysis of BI Tools -

Tools Strengths Weaknesses
Tableau Advanced visualization and Steep learning curve for
Analytics beginners
Power BI User Friendly Real Time Data Limited customisation in
Analytics enterprises
QlikView Flexible Reporting and High cost for large case use
Customisation options

Technical Details on Machine Learning Integration -

Machine Learning Algorithms : Machine learning algorithms play a crucial role in enhancing the
capabilities of Bl tools for threat detection.
Key Algorithms include:
Decision Trees: Useful for classifying data based on specific criteria, helping to identify known
threats.
Clustering: Groups similar data points, following for the detection of anomalies that may indicate
a cyber threat.
Neural Networks: Effective for recognizing complex patterns in large datasets, alding in the
prediction of potential attacks.
Integration Framework - To integrate machine learning with BI tools, organizations can follow
these steps:
Data Collection: Gather relevant data from various sources, including network logs and user
activity.
Data Preprocessing: Clean and prepare the data for analysis, ensuring it is suitable for machine
learning models.
Model Training: Use historical data to train machine learning models, enabling them to recognize
patterns associated with cyber threats.
Deployment: Implement the trained models within Bl tools to provide real- time threat detection
capabilities.
Real-World Applications - Organizations have successfully used machine learning in conjunction
with BI tools to predict and mitigate cyber threats. For example, a retail company utilized
anomaly detection algorithms to identify unusual purchasing patterns leading to the early
detection of credit card fraud.

Conclusion and Practical Recommendations - This study highlights the potential of BI tools in
enhancing cybersecurity for organizations with limited expertise. By leveraging predictive
analytics and machine learning, organizations can proactively identify and mitigate threats.

Actionable Recommendations
Training Programs: Develop training programs for non-expert users to familiarize them with Bl
tools and their applications in cybersecurity.
Collaboration with Cybersecurity -
Experts: Encourage organizations to collaborate with cybersecurity professionals to tailor BI
tools to their specific needs.
Regular Updates and Maintenance: Organizations should regularly update their BI systems and
machine learning models to adapt to evolving cyber threats.

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