How machine learning can help solve the IT security problem

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Less than a decade ago, the prevailing wisdom was that every business should undertake digital transformations to boost internal operations and improve customer relationships. Then they were told that cloud workloads were the future and that elastic computing solutions allowed them to operate in an agile and more cost-effective way, scaling as needed.

While digital transformations and cloud migrations are undoubtedly smart decisions that all organizations should make (and those that haven't yet, what do you do!), security systems intended to protect these IT infrastructures have not been able to keep pace with threats capable of undermining them.

As internal business operations become increasingly digitized, additional boatloads of data are produced. With the accumulation of data, IT and cloud security systems are under increased pressure, as more data leads to greater threats of security breaches.

In early 2022, a cyber extortion gang known as Lapsus$ went on a hacking spree, stealing source code and other valuable data from leading companies including Nvidia , Samsung, Microsoft and Ubisoft. The attackers initially exploited the companies' networks using phishing attacks, which compromised a contractor, giving the hackers all the access the contractor had through Okta (an identification and authentication). The source code and other files were later leaked online.

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This attack and many other data breaches target organizations of all types, ranging from large multinationals to small startups and growing businesses. Unfortunately, in most organizations, there are simply too many data points for security engineers to locate, which means that current systems and methods of protecting a network are fundamentally flawed.

Furthermore, organizations are often overwhelmed by the various tools available to address these security challenges. Too many tools means that organizations invest an exorbitant amount of time and energy – not to mention resources – in finding, purchasing, and then integrating and running those tools. This puts additional stress on executives and IT teams.

With so many moving parts, even the best security engineers are powerless trying to mitigate potential vulnerabilities in a network. Most organizations simply don't have the resources to invest in cybersecurity.

As a result, they are subject to a double-edged sword: their business operations rely on the highest levels of security, but achieving this comes at a cost that most organizations simply cannot afford.

A new approach to IT security is desperately needed to protect sensitive business and organizational data. The current standard approach includes rules-based systems, usually with multiple tools to cover all the bases. This practice leaves security analysts wasting time enabling and disabling rules and logging...