The rise of the digital age has given way to the development of smarter, faster, and more innovative technology that has transformed the way companies do business. But as technology evolves, so do the threats businesses face.
In 2013, Darktrace, an artificial intelligence-based cyber security software, emerged as a solution for businesses navigating the rapidly evolving, complex threat landscape as they move towards digitalization. With a powerful suite of self-learning AI-powered software, Darktrace enables organizations to detect, investigate, and respond to cyber threats in real time wherever they strike.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the technology behind the cyber security platform, as well as the features, capabilities and differentiators that distinguish Darktrace as a global leader in AI cyber security.
What is Darktrace?
Darktrace is a cyber security vendor renowned for its innovative use of AI or, more specifically machine learning, to build a robust cyber defense platform that identifies and eliminates novel cyber attacks and insider threats at an early stage across IT, IoT, OT, Cloud, and Email.
In essence, Darktrace deploys unsupervised machine learning technology to develop an evolving understanding of a company’s employees, systems, and data. From this data, the software creates a baseline of “normal” behavior (which adapts as the company changes) to detect and resolve anomalous activities that may indicate a potential threat.
How did Darktrace get its start?
The technology behind Darktrace was conceived by a group of mathematicians and intelligence specialists at Cambridge University who envisioned a new way of counteracting the rise of rapidly evolving cybersecurity threats. They included the former Chief Information Officer of the CIA, Alan Wade, and the former head of MI5, Lord Evans of Weardale KCB.
On April 30th, 2021, just 8 years after its creation, the company launched its IPO on the London Stock Exchange at a valuation of $ 2.37 Billion. In the years following its inception, Darktrace has quickly grown into a leading global player in AI cyber security, trusted by over 7400 organizations in more than 100 countries worldwide.
The company has also won a number of accolades including Best Security Company of the Year at the 2016 Info Security Global Excellence Awards, and was named one of the Most Innovative Companies in Artificial Intelligence of 2022 by Fast Company.
What makes Darktrace different from other cyber security frameworks?
We mentioned earlier that Darktrace is one of the foremost cyber security platforms on the market today, but what makes it such a powerful defender against today’s cyber security threats?
Here are 3 key differentiators that set Darktrace apart:
- Autonomous & Automatic. Unlike most traditional security solutions which require people to manually define and continuously update signatures (i.e., specific types of attacks), Darktrace requires zero human intervention. Instead, the software learns from existing patterns in order to detect and respond to anomalies before damage can occur.
- Proactive Approach. The majority of current cybersecurity defenses such as patch management, log monitoring, and SIEM, are reactive-based, meaning that they focus primarily on responding to incidents after they’ve occurred and preventing repeat attacks in the future.
By contrast, Darktrace delivers an “always on” approach to cyber security that prioritizes prevention, with the aim to preemptively identify weaknesses and augment human skills to protect organizations from potential threats before they occur.
- Speed & Scalability. With Darktrace, threat investigations are automated at speed and scale, reducing the time to triage by 92%. Additionally, Darktrace software is designed to integrate seamlessly with existing security infrastructure, is compatible with all major Cloud providers (including AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure), and provides coverage for up to 1 million devices.
What are the key elements of the Darktrace Cyber AI Platform?
The Darktrace cyber AI platform features a robust offering of innovative solutions that help organizations strengthen their cyber security posture by leveraging four key elements:
- Enterprise Immune System
The Enterprise Immune System is the catch-all name that represents the full scope and power of the cyber AI platform. Modeled on the principles of the human immune system, the solution is self-learning, detecting novel threats without using prior assumptions of what ‘malicious’ activity looks like.
All together, the Enterprise Immune System unifies real-time threat detection, visualization of activities and interventions, investigation capabilities, machine learning, and autonomous optimization controls across the company’s dynamic workforce – from cloud and SaaS environments to data centers, and the corporate network.
- Dark Trace Antigena Autonomous Response
Darktrace Antigena is a first-response solution designed to combat in-progress cyber threats detected by the Enterprise Immune System. In the same way that the human body responds to counteract infection with the deployment of antigens, Antigena Autonomous Response is designed to act autonomously to mitigate potential threats and prevent their distribution through the network.
Antigena works first by either slowing or fully stopping services or network connections that are displaying abnormal behavior. At the same time, cloud-security measures and a comprehensive lineup of threat landscape deployments come into play to further optimize security and provide real-time monitoring and intervention as the situation develops.
- Cyber AI Analyst
Cyber AI Analyst is an investigation technology that combines human interaction with AI to promote faster and more effective responses to security incidents.
When the Enterprise Immune System detects a potential threat, the Cyber AI Analyst automatically launches an organization-wide investigation, analyzing various anomalies before reaching a high-level conclusion about the nature and cause of the incident.
The Cyber AI Analyst then produces a dynamic situational dashboard as well as incident reports that enable resource-strained security teams to quickly understand the scope of the incident and position them to take swift action.
- Threat Visualization
The Darktrace Threat Visualizer is an interactive, intuitive 3D threat notification interface designed to enable threat analysts and executives to intuitively visualize behaviors and investigate anomalies in real-time.
When an anomaly emerges, the Visualizer generates color-coded alerts, enabling users to quickly locate and resolve the source of the disruption. Once the threat has been resolved, the users have the option to play back the events leading up to and during the anomaly for deep forensic analysis and more effective future prevention.
Is Darktrace the right cyber security solution for your business?
No business is immune from cyber attack. But as these threats continue to grow in scale, diversity, and sophistication, one thing is certain: reaction-based cyber security posture and human intervention measures are simply not enough.
Darktrace gives organizations the tools they need to confidently navigate the changing threat landscape. With the platform’s machine-learning capabilities, bespoke protection against vulnerabilities, and automatic, autonomous response, businesses can be assured that they’ll stay ahead of threat actors at every turn.
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