Inside the mind of machines: AI modeling scales security, analytics on the Industrial Internet

The advent of the Industrial Internet has raised the bar for security analysts and data scientists, a workforce whose number is quickly being dwarfed by the amount of connected machines. Now, machine learning and artificial intelligence professionals are teaming with traditional embedded vendors to help suppress the rising tide of cyber threats and Big Data. On their website, cyber security firm Norse Corporation generates a detailed, real-time map of cyber attacks occurring around the world, including the attack origin, attack type, and attack target (Figure 1). Hundreds of attacks are registered in any given minute, which, while disconcerting, pales in comparison with the number of systems being connected to the Industrial Internet. This brief exercise demonstrates a couple of things: 1) the quantity and speed of cyber threats that can be used to attack vulnerable, safety-critical industrial systems; and 2) the growing need for data scientists and security analysts1, as well as tools and technologies to support them as the Internet of Things (IoT) expands.