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Arctic Wolf has released its new Human Risk Report today, which analyzes some of the top cybersecurity risks facing companies. Nick Schneider, Arctic Wolf president and CEO, joins Asking for a Trend to discuss the state of cybersecurity ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Schneider calls the election "an event that sparks a lot of interest from bad actors." He notes that some are using the election to spread disinformation and influence Americans into doing things they might not otherwise do because of the tied emotions and importance. He points to bad actors leveraging AI for phishing campaigns as an example.

These bad actors could be other nations, criminal gangs, or individual actors, according to Schneider. He explains, "I think during an election year or any time there's an event that has significant interest in the public sphere, you're going to get increased interest and increased activity from the bad actors, both against businesses, but also against individuals, and kind of where those two meet or intersect is also additional risk to individual organizations."

He notes that Arctic Wolf specializes in security operations to protect organizations from threats, help them understand their cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and ensure that they have a plan for incident response.

As AI becomes increasingly adopted, Schneider believes it will pose a new dynamic for the industry: "There's an interesting intersection between its ability to increase the effectiveness of the bad actors by giving them new techniques and new methods to leverage those techniques with or against an organization or an individual. I think on the positive side, cybersecurity companies, Arctic Wolf included, have been leveraging AI to ensure that we're improving our efficiency or proving the effectiveness of our solutions, giving customers an additional avenue to ask questions or further understand individual threats."

With cybersecurity top of mind for many organizations, Schneider encourages starting with the basics. He stresses the importance of multi-factor authentication (MFA) and making sure employees understand what phishing scams look like. He also believes it is important to understand where any vulnerabilities may lie and have an incident response plan in place in the case of a breach.

"I think if you can do those kinds of blocking and tackling, make sure your people are trained and understand the landscape and then have a security operation to protect your business, you'll be in pretty good shape," he tells Yahoo Finance.

To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Asking for a Trend here.

This post was written by Melanie Riehl