Leveraging AI to undertake investigations of suspicious activities could significantly increase security teams' abilities to protect their organizations from cyber-attacks, according to Andrew Tsonchev, director of technology, Darktrace, speaking during the Infosecurity Magazine Online Summit EMEA 2021. The development of an'AI analyst' differs from the normal role of threat detection played by this type of technology in cybersecurity. In essence, it looks to "replicate the sort of steps taken by a human analyst in a SOC in a course of an investigation." Part of the driver for Darktrace's work in this area has been the extra pressure placed on security teams as a result of the changing working patterns in the past year. This has led to the growing use of remote endpoints as well as technologies such as SaaS and collaboration tools, expanding the threat landscape.

Automation is changing the way that businesses operate. From the factory floor to back-end IT, automated services and machines are increasing speed and productivity while freeing workers up to focus on more skilled tasks. 'Automation' is often used synonymously with'artificial intelligence', but although automated machines can use AI, they are very different. Automation is rule-based: 'If A, then B'. AI, on the other hand, is trained to learn, develop and grow using the data it is given.

Cambridge cyber defence pioneer Darktrace has responded to twin alarms from the US government and EU by launching a specialist division to deal with threats of industrial espionage. Darktrace Industrial will specifically identify emerging and existing compromises on industrial systems and critical infrastructure networks. Andrew Tsonchev has been unveiled as director of technology at Darktrace Industrial. The launch signals a four-year investment by Darktrace in the Industrial Immune System – the world's first and only proven machine learning technology capable of detecting emerging attacks on OT environments. Tsonchev said that threats to critical infrastructure are garnering increasing worldwide attention.

Over the last few years, machine learning threat detection and defence company Darktrace has been something of a rising star in the cybersecurity industry. Its core unsupervised machine learning technology lend it the reputation of being one of the best in AI-enabled security. But what exactly do those on the cutting edge of cybersecurity research worry about? Computerworld UK met with director of cyber analysis at Darktrace, Andrew Tsonchev, at the IP Expo show in London's Docklands late last month. "A lot of solutions out there look at previous attacks and try to learn from them, so AI and machine learning are being built around learning from what they've seen before," he said.

Over the last few years, machine learning threat detection and defence company Darktrace has been something of a rising star in the cybersecurity industry. Its core unsupervised machine learning technology lend it the reputation of being one of the best in AI-enabled security. But what exactly do those on the cutting edge of cybersecurity research worry about? Computerworld UK met with director of cyber analysis at Darktrace, Andrew Tsonchev, at the IP Expo show in London's Docklands late last month. "A lot of solutions out there look at previous attacks and try to learn from them, so AI and machine learning are being built around learning from what they've seen before," he said.