US-based Endgame, a leader in unified endpoint protection against targeted attacks, has announced that chief scientist Hyrum Anderson will conduct a keynote talk addressing the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in today’s security landscape at the Cyber Defense Summit (CDS) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The talk is based on Endgame’s proven success leveraging machine learning (ML) for threat detection and intelligent agent Artemis® for scaling and elevating security teams within organisations today, said a company statement.

While AI adoption has grown in popularity, a standardised way to assess the capabilities or weakness of AI in endpoint security products has not. Anderson will stress that the reasons AI is compelling have less to do with robots and general artificial intelligence, and more to do with simple concepts.

Anderson has a formal education in machine learning, with applied information and national security experience at cybersecurity firms and US national laboratories.

Anderson’s talk, “Beyond the AI buzzwords: a balanced perspective of AI in security,” is scheduled for today (February 13).

Anderson said: “Our machine learning continues to scale and elevate tier-1 analysts, and also detect malware and malicious activity in a single agent across the MITRE ATT&CK matrix.”

“Unfortunately, the industry’s attempts to teach and market effective machine learning technology may actually have poisoned understanding and expectations about what they do. And this, rightfully, has caused some skepticism by practitioners,” he said.

“The key challenge has been a mismatch between perception and practice. The industry’s branding of ‘AI’ as narrowly focused ML for detection has misdirected attention away from other advances in guided triage, automated response, and assisted workflow,” he added.

Anderson will discuss key misconceptions about effective machine learning technology in information security. He will dive into what the different buzzwords mean from a practitioners perspective and what the bottom-line benefits actually are.

Avinash Advani, chief executive officer, Spire Solutions, said: “This year we anticipate that cyber attackers will be leveraging AI in their playbooks to identify vulnerabilities and automate tactics at scale.”

“To effectively counter these attacks with a robust defensive strategy, it is important to have a security foundation in place that is also derived from similar concepts and focuses on advanced threat detection,” he said.

“This elevated intelligence enables SOC teams to prevent large-scale breaches and rapidly respond to incidents. Endgame’s machine learning capabilities take ‘thinking like an attacker’ to the next level,” he added.

CDS is powered by Endgame’s partner, Spire Solutions, the Middle East’s preferred security solution provider, it stated. – TradeArabia News Service