How to improve cybersecurity with machine learning

Data breaches and cyber attacks have become harder to deter over the last few years. According to Cisco's 2018 Annual Cybersecurity Report, for example, the expanded volume of both legitimate and malicious encrypted traffic on the web has made it more difficult for security professionals to recognize and monitor potential threats. As a result, many security professionals are looking to leverage machine learning to advance cybersecurity. Before exploring the ways machine learning can improve cybersecurity, it is important to first understand what machine learning actually is. To begin with, machine learning is not one in the same with artificial intelligence (A.I.), which is part of a broader initiative to enable computers to reason, solve problems, perceive and understand language.