Security experts have always realized that information security is a constant arms race. Attackers discover new methods to evade defenses, we update our defenses, and the cycle continues and repeats. In fact, much of our legacy defense is reactive. It relies on us having seen a particular attack, and creating a specific defense for that particular attack. The problem is, reactive defenses do little good for new attacks.
Prediction video link: https://youtu.be/PXG-nty1XR0
Today’s attackers have automated their attacks, ensuring they constantly evade our reactive defenses. Signature-based protection is no longer effective. While human analysts can identify new threats by monitoring for suspicious behaviors, cyber criminals release new threats in such volume that humans can’t keep up. The solution? Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning that can automatically recognize malicious behavior.
At a very high level, statisticians and mathematicians have begun to develop big data algorithms that can identify very complex behaviors and trends. The security industry is starting to see a new level of security controls that can proactively find new threats in real-time, without human interaction. We’ll always be one step behind the latest attack, so these more proactive security technologies are the only way we might stop the newest threat.
Expect 2016 to be the year of machine learning and behavioral detection security controls.
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