When Machines Detect, Humans Decide

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Category: Trends and Reports


Summary

AI now scans billions of events in seconds.
It detects faster, correlates deeper, and never sleeps.

But there’s a catch.
Every security vendor is now in an AI arms race, claiming faster, smarter, more autonomous defense.

The result?
88% of organisations say alert volumes are up year over year, and CISOs face more dashboards, more noise, and more liability – not less.

Because in the AI race, speed is the goal.
Security is the collateral.

When a real attack lands, machines can detect.
Only humans can decide what happens next.

The Promise – and the paradox – of AI

AI can spot an anomaly that no analyst could.
But it can’t tell if it’s a harmless misconfiguration – or the start of a breach.

In the Capital One cloud breach of 2019, automated monitoring systems did raise alerts about unusual access patterns in the cloud environment.
But like in many large enterprises, those signals were buried under thousands of daily events – logged, but not recognized for what they were.
By the time investigators connected the dots, a misconfigured firewall had already exposed 106 million customer records.

That’s the paradox:
AI is brilliant at reading data – but blind to intent.
It doesn’t understand business risk, regulatory fallout, or brand impact.
It doesn’t feel the heat of a boardroom at 2AM.

When the next breach hits, you don’t need “AI-driven insight” alone.
You need analysts who’ve lived through ransomware nights, cloud misconfigurations, and OT shutdowns – people who can make judgment calls when seconds matter.

The hybrid model: machines + humans

True resilience comes from combining both.

Here’s how it works:

1. Machines detect

When? Continuously, across IT, OT, and cloud.
They flag anomalies in milliseconds.

2. Humans decide

Experienced analysts interpret the data, weigh intent, and choose the right response.
They understand risk in context – business, operations, reputation.

In ON2IT’s Global SOC, for instance, AI filters out up to 98% of false positives, leaving analysts to focus on what’s real.
That means faster triage, fewer distractions, and verified decisions that align with business context.

3. Together, they deliver clarity

They deliver what neither can alone:
real-time clarity, guided by experience.

Beyond detection: building trust

AI can flag what looks wrong.
But trust comes from knowing what’s truly at stake – operations, compliance, human safety.

When an attacker pivots from IT to OT or a cloud workload starts exfiltrating data, you need analysts who can act with both technical precision and strategic awareness.
That’s why ON2IT’s MDR Detect™ offers the option to connect machine intelligence with named, senior SOC analysts, available 24/7.
Their job isn’t to replace AI – it’s to turn automation into assurance.

The takeaway

In cybersecurity:

  • Automation without context is risk.
  • Context without automation is delay.

Resilience needs both.

Machines bring speed.
Humans bring sense.
Together, they bring certainty.

That’s the power of hybrid intelligence, and it’s at the core of MDR Detect™.

Next in this series:

RESILIENCE BY DESIGN: FUTURE-PROOFING SECURITY WITH MDR Detect™