So, How Does Machine Learning Apply To Cyber Security?

My friends and family find themselves discussing news stories these days that are inundated with futuristic tales of automation and how it is changing their lives in some form while giving them a distinct feeling of being left behind as they age. The media approaches automation from multiple angles, though most publications often address modern day automation as a new frontier taking over mundane tasks now, but possibly our jobs in the future. Today's automation certainly offers many wonderful benefits, for example, robotics in manufacturing automation, pattern recognition in self-driving cars, or just pre-learned actions such as airplanes flying by wire. One of the key components in all of these automation technologies is machine learning in one form or another. Such a wide variety of machine learning applications and their respective evolutions has become a broad subject resulting in a net positive impact on our society.