Absolute protection does not exist: How AI and remote work are increasing cybersecurity risks

Artificial intelligence is already having a profound impact on cybersecurity. However, the issue is not limited to making cyberattacks faster and more sophisticated. New technologies are also significantly improving the ability to detect threats and vulnerabilities. This was stated by Komitas Stepanyan, Director of Information Technology and Cybersecurity at the Central Bank of Armenia, speaking at the first Armenian defense industry exhibition RISE-2026, with NEWS.am Tech serving as the event’s media partner.

Artificial Intelligence Strengthens Both Defense and Threats

According to Stepanyan, there are already AI systems that have demonstrated the ability to identify serious flaws in software solutions that had long been considered reliable and secure. Many of these vulnerabilities had previously gone unnoticed by both specialists and traditional analysis systems.

“On the one hand, artificial intelligence technologies are becoming incredibly effective tools for cybersecurity. On the other hand, in the hands of cybercriminals, they can become a real weapon,” Stepanyan noted.

He added that the development of artificial intelligence and the future emergence of quantum computers are forcing governments and companies to make a choice: either use these new capabilities to build more secure systems or risk falling behind in adapting to new threats.

Absolute Protection Does Not Exist

Stepanyan admitted that watching the rapid development of technology fills him with both professional interest and serious concern.

“When you are responsible for the security of systems, you cannot sleep peacefully. I cannot say that our systems are protected one hundred percent. In fact, no system in the world has one hundred percent protection,” he emphasized.

According to the expert, the capabilities of artificial intelligence are making cybersecurity professionals approach the future with even greater caution. At the same time, he personally studies new tools and experiments with them almost every day.

You Can Only Protect What You Know Exists

Discussing the fundamental principles of cybersecurity, Stepanyan referred to the Cybersecurity Framework of the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), widely regarded as one of the most authoritative international standards in the field.

According to him, the framework consists of five key components: identify, protect, detect, respond, and recover.

“If you want to protect something, you first need to understand exactly what it is that you are protecting,” he said.

The expert stressed that the presence of a device within a corporate network that is unknown to information security specialists already constitutes a serious threat. For this reason, monitoring systems must immediately detect the appearance of any new device and provide relevant information to responsible teams.

“I cannot imagine a serious corporation where a device could appear on the network without the information security specialists knowing about it,” Stepanyan stated.

Remote Work Creates New Risks

Stepanyan also addressed the risks associated with remote work, which, in his opinion, many companies still underestimate.

In the past, employees worked from offices under the supervision of security teams and IT departments. Today, however, they increasingly work from home, cafés, or virtually anywhere else.

“When an employee is sitting in front of a computer and working remotely, none of us can provide a one-hundred-percent guarantee about who else might be standing next to that screen,” the expert noted.

According to him, the challenge extends beyond protecting the computer itself or the communication channel. It also involves the physical security of information. Corporate data may become visible to unauthorized individuals who happen to be near the employee while they are working.

Stepanyan explained that modern technologies already make it possible to monitor such risks. There are solutions capable of analyzing what is happening in front of a screen and determining whether only one person is looking at it or whether someone else is present as well.

However, implementing such systems requires additional investment, and not all organizations are willing to adopt these tools.

In the expert’s view, the growing prevalence of remote work demands fundamentally new approaches to information security. Companies must not only secure their infrastructure but also pay close attention to the environments in which employees access corporate data.