IBM has launched a range of new machine learning-based security tools that it says can help firms identify and fight off cyber attacks.
The company has unveiled its next-generation Resilient Incident Response Platform with ‘Intelligent Orchestration’, which is aimed at helping enterprises respond to breaches more quickly and effectively.
From a single platform, companies can access case incident management, orchestration, automation, intelligence, and “deep two-way partnership” features, said IBM in an announcement.
Big Blue said its experts spent around 200,000 hours in research and development to create the software.
Detecting advanced threats
In a bid to combine machine and human intelligence, the firm has also launched X-Force Threat Management Services, a new artificial intelligence-driven solution that automates threat detection.
Thanks to its three AI engines, the software is able to analyse new threats by comparing them to 600,000 historical use cases.
According to IBM, the software “can help automate certain steps in the threat management process, which would normally require human intervention”.
Tackling complex threats
IBM takes the view that AI and machine learning technologies should be combined with human knowledge to tackle complex issues, rather than simply automate or replace human tasks.
In this case, the company is combining machine and human intelligence to “work together in highly complex environments” and “solve” sophisticated cybersecurity threats, it said.
The company’s security arm, IBM Security, said the new solutions “provide the full context of the incident”, which means that humans can “focus on complex and priority threats”.
Changing every industry
Marc van Zadelhoff, general manager of the firm, believes that companies can achieve more if they encourage their employees to work with AI tools. “The collaboration between humans and intelligent machines is going to affect every industry,” he said.
“In security, we see this manifesting itself first in the security operations centre where the data only keeps growing. Companies have an opportunity with breakthroughs like AI for active threat management and Intelligent Orchestration to rewire incident response procedures for the age of intelligence.”
New research
The announcements come as IBM releases a report, with research from Harris Poll, which examines how consumers feel about data privacy.
In the UK section of the report, 82 percent of consumers said that lacklustre security deters them from buying some companies’ products, and 83 percent of them expect the government to do more to regulate these firms.
By using its new AI and machine learning security solutions, the firm hopes that clients can implement better safeguards to stop hackers from preying on their customers and products.
“Increasingly, we are seeing companies around the world trying to balance providing personalised services to consumers, while maintaining privacy,” added John Kelly, senior vice president of Cognitive Solutions at IBM.
• In IBM’s Q1 2018 results, its Cognitive Solutions revenue was $4.3 billion, up two percent year on year in constant currency.
Internet of Business says
IBM’s recent focus has been on the critical mix of cognitive services and enterprise security. Speaking last year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, IBM chair and CEO Virginia Rometty stressed that AI and machine learning are about augmenting and complementing human ingenuity, not replacing it.
She said, “For us, the reason we call it ‘cognitive’ rather than ‘AI’ is that it is augmenting human intelligence – it will not be ‘Man or machine’. Whether it’s doctors, lawyers, call centre workers, it’s a very symbiotic relationship conversing with this technology. So our purpose is to augment and to really be in service of what humans do.”