Worldwide Revenue for Security Technology Forecast to Surpass $100 Billion in 2020, According to the New IDC Worldwide Semiannual Security Spending Guide. The industries that will see the fastest growth in their security investments will be healthcare (10.3% CAGR), followed by telecommunications, utilities, state/local government, and securities and investment services.
“The pace and threat of security attacks is increasing every year, especially across compliance-driven industries like healthcare, telecom, government and financial services,” said Eileen Smith, program director, Customer Insights and Analysis.
Why is artificial intelligence used in cyber security?
Cybersecurity companies are increasingly looking to artificial intelligence tech to improve defense systems and create the next generation of cyber protection.
Two developments are driving this trend:
- First, the demand for cybersecurity professionals is outstripping the supply of qualified personnel, as the number and severity of attacks rise.
- Second, previously unknown attack types, known as “zero-day attacks” are also on the rise.
These trends are driving demand for automated cybersecurity, i.e. AI-driven software that can use machine learning and other technologies to differentiate benign or harmful activity on a system or network.
| Company | Description | Total Disclosed Funding $M | Select Investors |
| Tanium | A real-time endpoint management solution that provides instant visibility into networked devices through natural language processing, to allow enterprises to collect data and update machines across networks. | $295M | Executive Press, Andreessen Horowitz, Nor-Cal Invest |
| Cylance | Applies AI algorithms to predict, identify and stop malware and mitigate damages from zero-day attacks. | $177M | Khosla Ventures, Fairhaven Capital, Citi Ventures |
| LogRhythm | Offers threat intelligence and analytics, for organizations to rapidly detect, respond to and neutralize threats, in addition to compliance automation and assurance, and enhanced IT intelligence. | $126M | Access Venture Partners, Siemens Venture Capital, Exclusive Ventures |
| Darktrace | Pairs behavioral analytics with advanced mathematics to automatically detect abnormal behavior in organizations. | $107M | SoftBank Group, Samsung Ventures, Ten Eleven Ventures |
| Sift Science | Provides real-time machine learning fraud prevention solutions for online businesses. | $54M | Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital, SV Angel |
| Exabeam | Offers user behavior analytics that leverage existing log data to quickly detect advanced attacks, prioritize incidents and guide effective responses. | $35M | Aspect Ventures, Icon Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners |
| E8 Security | Provides intelligence and analytics software alongside a big data platform for long-term data retention and retrospective analysis. | $22M | Allegis Capital, March Capital Partners, Strategic Cyber Ventures |
| CyberX | Designed for industrial internet networks to detect abnormal behavior by analyzing the operational behavior of the networks. | $11M | ff Venture Capital, Flint Capital, GlenRock Israel |
| Interset | Offers behavioral analytics to protect critical data across the manufacturing, life sciences, high-tech, finance, government, aerospace and defense, and securities brokerage industries. | $10M | In-Q-Tel, Anthem Venture Partners, Telesystem |
| PatternEx | A platform to identify malicious user intent by enabling users to predict and prevent cyber attacks in real time, across an enterprise network. | $8M | Khosla Ventures |
| SecBI | Offers an advanced threat detection system that uncovers cyber attacks, including all affected users, domains, assets and more. | $5M | Amichai Shulman, Connecticut Innovations, Jerusalem Venture Partners |
| Avata Intelligence | Delivers descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics to understand and respond to security threats. | $2.5M | Aristos Ventures |
| Jask Labs | Leverages artificial intelligence and advanced analytics to keep corporate data and operations secure. | $2M | Battery Ventures, Vertical Venture Partners, Undisclosed Investors |
Benefits to business with AI + Cyber Security
Security experts will tell you that humans are the weakest link in the cyber security world. The facts speak for themselves, over 90 percent of security incidents are due to human error. AI systems can learn a user’s behavioral patterns, and in the future may potentially intuit answers to email correspondence and offer a draft of an answer to the user. Currently, big tech companies are trying to develop smart search tools, like Apple, which acquired Cue in 2013 to improve the search experience with iOS products. Slack is trying to advance the search feature of its product, and obviously Google recently released a smart search engine for G-Suite customers to do a smart search across G-Suite product, including Drive, Gmail, Sites, Calendar Docs, Contacts, and more. But tech giants are not the only ones applying AI to structure and find hidden patterns in information.
Something similar is happening in the cybersecurity field in the search for hackers’ attacks. This is how it works – security companies are applying smart prediction to find hacker patterns and identify tactics used to conduct attacks. Based on this, AI ‘learns’ the behavior and can predict what kind of attack there might be next time. There might not even be a hacker attack or real information on one, but smart AI has already assessed hacker patterns.
Does this affects cyber security jobs in future?
Despite concerns that automation will lead to job losses, security is one of the areas where AI could lead to job gains. According to a report by PwC, by the 2030s five percent or more of UK jobs will be in areas related to new robotics and AI that do not exist now.
The reason cybersecurity could lead to job gains alongside automation is the sheer amount of growth the sector is seeing. As attacks and the threat of attacks grow, more people and more sophisticated technology will be needed to fight them.
Cisco believes there are around 1m unfilled roles in this sector worldwide because of the lack of people with the right knowledge, which could increase to 1.5m by 2019.
future of cybersecurity 