Summary: Despite the challenges posed by legacy IT systems, government agencies can leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to accelerate their modernization efforts. By utilizing AI, agencies can address three key areas: understanding older programming languages, developing new code, and expediting vulnerability remediation. With AI, agencies can streamline their processes, enhance security, and align IT priorities with the capabilities of AI.
Legacy systems in the public sector pose significant security risks, increase costs, and hinder application development. However, modernizing these systems can be a complex and time-consuming process, especially with the prevalence of memory-unsafe languages. It is estimated that as much as 70% of vulnerabilities can be attributed to legacy systems and memory-unsafe languages, making the need for modernization even more critical.
To initiate the modernization journey, government agencies are advised to publish memory safety roadmaps, which outline their plans to update their software development lifecycle. This serves as a starting point for agencies, providing insights into their application inventory, languages used, and areas for improvement. AI plays a key role in this process by analyzing data patterns, user behavior, and automating security testing and analysis.
AI can also assist developers in understanding and updating legacy code. By using AI, developers can decipher the existing code and generate new, memory-safe code. This streamlined code can then run efficiently on cloud infrastructure, leveraging microservices and other resources. Additionally, AI can be used to develop greenfield applications by generating code blocks and frameworks based on use cases and required inputs.
In the face of ever-evolving cybersecurity threats, AI can significantly enhance vulnerability scanning and remediation. By analyzing data and automating root cause analysis, security testing, and fixes for vulnerabilities, AI enables faster response times and strengthens collaboration between security professionals and developers.
The capability of AI is rapidly advancing, and government agencies can leverage this technology to accelerate their IT modernization efforts. Upgrading legacy systems and incorporating automation through AI is a low-risk, high-reward approach. As agencies embrace modernization and align their IT priorities with the potential of AI, they can mitigate risks and optimize their operations for a digital future.
The source of the article is from the blog exofeed.nl