IBM Watson Turns to Cyber Crime Sleuthing

“Watson for Cyber Security complements other sophisticated offerings in IBM’s digital security portfolio, including IBM Trusteer Pinpoint Detect, a system that uses machine learning and behavioral biometrics to scan for threats from connected users…”

IBM has adopted its famous Watson artificial intelligence program for digital security, and already has 40 clients on board for a beta test. Participating clients include big names like Sun Life Financial, California Polytechnic State University, and University of New Brunswick.

In a statement, the company explained that Watson for Cyber Security relies on “machine learning and natural language processing” to help security analysts assess threats. It can tell administrators if a given security incident appears to be connected to a known piece of malware or digital attack trend, and it “provides additional context to user activity outside of the primary suspicious behavior”.

IBM Security CTO Sandy Bird added that companies’ use of such “cognitive security technologies… will increase three fold over the next three years”.

Watson for Cyber Security complements other sophisticated offerings in IBM’s digital security portfolio, including IBM Trusteer Pinpoint Detect, a system that uses machine learning and behavioral biometrics to scan for threats from connected users; and IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics, which builds profiles of individuals within a given company to assess whether their credentials are hacked.

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December 6, 2016 – by Alex Perala