Over the last few weeks I’ve read a lot about the role AI or Artificial Intelligence (or should I better write “Artificial” Intelligence?) will play in Cyber Security. There is no doubt that advanced analytical technologies (frequently subsumed under the AI term), such as pattern matching, machine learning, and many others, are already affecting Cyber Security. However, the emphasis here is on “already”. It would be wrong to say “nothing new under the sun”, given that there is a lot of progress in this space. But it is just as wrong to ignore the evolution of the past couple of years.
At KuppingerCole, we started looking at what we call Real Time Security Intelligence (RTSI) a couple of years back. We published our first report on this topic back in May 2014 and covered the topic in our predictions for 2014. The topic was covered in a session at EIC 2014. And we published a series of blogs on that topic during that year.
There is no doubt that advanced analytical technologies will help organizations in their fight against cyber-attacks, because they help in detecting potential attacks at an earlier stage, as well as enabling the identification of complex attack patterns that span various systems. AI also might help, such as in IBM Watson for Cyber Security, to provide a better understanding of cyber risks by collecting and analyzing both structured and unstructured information. Cognitive Security solutions such as IBM Watson for Cyber Security are part of the AI evolution in the field of cyber-security. But again: The journey started a couple of years ago, and we are just in the very early stages.
So why this hype now? Maybe it is because of achieving a critical mass of solutions. More and more companies have entered the field in recent years. Maybe it is because of some big players actively entering that market. At the beginning, most of the players were startups (and many of these rooted in Israel). Now, large companies such as IBM have started pushing the topic, gaining far more awareness in public. Maybe it is because of AI in Cyber Security being the last hope for a solution that helps the good guys win in their fight against cyber criminals and nation-state attackers (hard to say where the one ends and the other starts).
Anyway: We will see not only more solutions in the market and advancements in that field of technology in 2017 and beyond, but we will see a strong increase in awareness for “AI in Cyber Security” as well as the field of Real Time Security Intelligence. This is, regardless of all skepticism regarding the use of terms and regarding hypes, a positive evolution.