Home Startups How Billion Dollar Startup Darktrace is Using AI to Fight Cybercrime

How Billion Dollar Startup Darktrace is Using AI to Fight Cybercrime

Pitting machines against machines to safeguard data is one of the philosophies of Darktrace, a cybersecurity startup that utilizes AI in fighting cybercrimes against companies.

Recently, Nicole Eagan, Darktrace’s CEO and co-founder, told CNBC Make It that the world is currently in an ongoing cyberarms race with the battlefield being inside the network of every company.

In his statement, Nicole also said that the world would experience a war against algorithms. He stressed this point by stating that attackers would improve their artificial intelligence and mathematical algorithms while the protectors of data would do the same.

According to Eagan, this situation will go on for some time and can be expected to worsen before things get better. However, based on his estimations, artificial intelligence (AI) is the key to fighting such threats.

Drawing Inspiration from the Human Body

According Eagan, Darktrace’s artificial intelligence tech comprises of software that can work in a cloud, in a manufacturing plant floor, power facility or a corporate network. It combats threats initiated by attackers to access a company’s computer networks through Internet connected devices.

Such threats distress company insiders by using their roles to penetrate a company’s networks Nevertheless; Darktrace’s AI draws inspiration from how the human immune system combats illnesses.

Eagan stated that the human immune system boasts of a distinctive ability to understand self, particularly what belongs in the body and what does not. As such, it is able to rapidly respond to threats, even those not previously encountered.

Similarly, Darktrace’s machine learning system can comprehend normal behavioral patterns of every device and user that is connected to a corporate computer network. For this reason, it has the potential to detect deviations from normal activity, allowing it to work like a digital antibody.

Cybersecurity from Inside

With the threat of cybercrime continuously increasing, Darktrace appears to take no chances. In fact, it works on the notion that hackers or attackers may eventually find their way into a company’s computer systems.

As such, the company decided to find cyber threats from the inside out through creating and applying software as a service in a bid to see when something gets into the system, what other data it accessed, what other computers it touched. This effort allows Darktrace to prevent the attack before doing any real harm.

Competition

Although Darktrace boasts over 700 employees globally and managed to secure $719 million, which places its valuation at $1.25 billion, the company is not the only industry playing leveraging the power of AI.

Richard Forno, the University of Maryland’s director of the Cybersecurity Graduate Program, noted that there has been an increasing interest in applying computing technologies like AI, machine learning and deep learning, particularly in identifying threats before they turn into real incidents.

Other companies currently taking advantage of such technologies other than Darktrace include Trustlook, which offers solutions to safeguard the IoT, network appliances and mobile devices. California-based Chronicle, on the other hand, uses machine intelligence to combat cybercrime.

Looking at the future of the industry, Steve Morgan of Cybersecurity Ventures told CNBC that the AI market within cybersecurity is ripe for considerable growth over the upcoming decade

Source CNBC

 

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KC Cheung
KC Cheung has over 18 years experience in the technology industry including media, payments, and software and has a keen interest in artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, neural networks and its applications in business. Over the years he has worked with some of the leading technology companies, building and growing dynamic teams in a fast moving international environment.
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