Dr. Jayalakshmi Vaithiyanathan is a distinguished academician and researcher with over 28 years of teaching experience in the field of Computer Science and Information Technology. She currently serves as the Director – Digital Infrastructure and Professor in the School of Computing Sciences at Vels Institute of Science Technology and Advanced Studies. She holds M.C.A., M.Phil., SET, NET, and Ph.D. qualifications, reflecting her strong academic foundation and commitment to higher education and research. Her areas of specialization include Wireless Networks, Artificial Intelligence, and Cyber Security. Dr. Jayalakshmi has made significant contributions to research and academic mentoring, guiding numerous postgraduate, M.Phil., and Ph.D. scholars. She has published extensively in national and international journals and conferences, authored five books, and has ten published patents to her credit. Her scholarly achievements and academic excellence have earned her several awards and recognitions in the field of computing sciences and digital technologies.      

Cyber security in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Challenges and Opportunities Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the way we approach cyber security in today’s digital world. As organizations rely more on cloud platforms, connected systems, and data-driven technologies, cyber threats are becoming more frequent, advanced, and difficult to control. Cyber-attacks now happen at machine speed, with AI-driven systems capable of scanning, exploiting vulnerabilities, and moving across networks in minutes. The average breakout time for a security breach has dropped to less than 30 minutes, making traditional defences and manual response strategies increasingly ineffective. AI has become a powerful support system for strengthening cyber defence through faster threat detection, real-time monitoring, anomaly identification, predictive risk analysis, and automated incident response. At the same time, cybercriminals are also using AI to make attacks smarter and more dangerous. Advanced phishing emails, adaptive malware, deepfake fraud, and automated hacking techniques are becoming increasingly common. This session explores the double-edged nature of Artificial Intelligence in cyber security. On one side are the growing challenges: hyper-personalized phishing attacks powered by deep fakes, AI-generated polymorphic malware, automated vulnerability exploitation, and the rising threat of model poisoning in enterprise Large Language Models (LLMs). These threats are becoming more adaptive, intelligent, and difficult to detect using conventional security approaches. On the other side, AI also offers powerful opportunities for stronger cyber defence. Organizations are now building self-healing infrastructures, AI-powered Security Operations Centres (SOCs), predictive ransom ware detection systems, and smarter Zero Trust Architectures where AI helps manage identity, access, and trust boundaries more effectively. The focus is shifting from reactive security to predictive remediation—where AI can identify and fix vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them.A major discussion point in this session is the rise of Agentic AI, where AI acts not just as a tool, but as an independent decision-making agent. This creates both innovation and risk, especially when organizations struggle with the growing gap between available AI technologies and the skilled professionals needed to govern, audit, and secure them. As cyber threats become more intelligent, security leadership must also evolve. This presentation introduces the concept of Cognitive Resilience—a strategic approach where organizations use intelligence to defend against intelligence. The goal is not simply to respond faster, but to build systems that can think, adapt, and protect themselves in an increasingly autonomous digital world.