Darktrace, the self-proclaimed world leader in AI cyber security, makes use of self-learning intelligence similar to the human immune system.
CEO of the UK tech company, Nicole Eagan, claims there is a growing demand for AI security tech. Companies are not just dealing with individuals anymore, that are in their room on a laptop trying to see how much damage they can do. Clusters of cybercriminals are starting to develop ‘tools’ that involve Artificial Intelligence. To defend against such forms of attacks, new technologies must be deployed.
The Enterprise Immune System, Darktrace’s advanced machine learning technology, looks at the way employees of a client work on their computer. It then learns the pattern of the users on the network, and correlates the information to detect potential threats that differ from the pattern. The system’s core functionality is derived from processes in our own immune system. Your body learns what is normal and then adapts to the threats by pinpointing deviations that are abnormal.
Darktrace, founded in 2013, is currently valued at an astonishing 1.65 billion dollars, a significant increase compared to the 80 million valuation in March 2015. One of the reasons for such a high valuation is the decreasing capability of legacy cyber security systems to defend against cyber attacks, or prevent them from happening. However, the product that Darktrace offers is not flawless. One of the main problems with Artificial Intelligence in cyber security is the occurrence of false positives. This can make it hard for companies to filter through alerts and detect the actual threats.
I believe that in the future, the legacy cyber security systems will largely have been replaced by systems with AI components. Failure to adapt to the increasing threat of cyber attacks will leave companies as well as individuals too exposed.
Sources:
Bloomberg. (2018). Darktrace CEO on the growing demand for AI security tech. [online]. Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2018-09-27/darktrace-ceo-on-the-growing-demand-for-ai-security-tech-video [Accessed 11 Oct. 2018].
Ram, A. (2018). Inside Darktrace, the UK’s $1.65bn cyber security start-up. Financial Times. [online] Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/2fa5bade-cb09-11e8-9fe5-24ad351828ab [Accessed 11 Oct. 2018].
Darktrace. (n.d.) The Enterprise Immune System. [online] Available at: https://www.darktrace.com/en/ [Accessed 11 Oct. 2018].
