Exhibitor News

Inights From Vectra AI

Could you tell us more about the innovations in Cybersecurity you are bringing to the show?

We recently announced the Vectra AI Platform. The Vectra AI Platform is the integrated signal powering XDR providing hybrid attack surface coverage across identity, public cloud, SaaS, and data center networks. The platform is powered by AI-driven Attack Signal Intelligence to prioritize real attacks in real-time with integrated, automated, and co-managed response so today’s SOC teams can move at the speed and scale of hybrid attackers.

Which trends do you anticipate for the Cybersecurity industry in the Middle East and Africa in the next 5-10 years?

Security teams are facing a spiral of more attack surface exposure, more evasive and sophisticated attackers and more tools, alerts, noise and complexity to manage. Attackers use this to their advantage, so organizations will continue to transition towards cybersecurity solutions that fit within their modernization priorities. They will build hybrid attack resilience by using integrated threat signals. They will look to improve SOC efficiencies by speeding up investigation and response capabilities and they will look at ways of becoming effective at stopping advanced attacks. AI will be at the forefront of these trends, enabling a way for teams to finally stay ahead of today’s cyberthreats.

What are the critical aspects of cybersecurity that companies should be investing in to protect their systems and assets in 2024? 

Investing in a resilient organization based on technology enabled and signal empowered active risk management will put your organization at the forefront ultimately protecting your business operations. A state-of-the-art Security Operations strategy with a high-fidelity signal at its core will enable the security team to deliver towards this ambition.

 Considering the complex and divergent regulatory environment worldwide, what is the role of the public sector in the future of the digital industry?

The public sector or more so the policy makers are pivotal to create an environment for the digital industry that sets them up for success. A sound balance between protecting digital citizens, digital business and embracing the advantages of a digital industry are key. Rather than introducing another set of regulatory limitations, a pragmatic approach helping to navigate the global environment, while keeping the national interests in mind will set the successful public sector apart.

 What is the importance of public-private collaborations to map risks, prevent cyber-attacks, and protect companies and individuals' data today?

Public-private partnerships are a cornerstone of a thriving digital business environment. Without the public sector “nudging” the private sector to make cyber risk management a priority, country or region-wide resilience is hard to achieve. The private sector has built important capabilities to provide visibility and protect key services and assets enabling a successful risk oversight.

 How will the current cybersecurity threats transform the hardware and software manufacturing industry and their products in the next 5 years?

History has shown that current cyberthreats have not as much transformative impact as one might think and regulations will drive transformation much more likely to a different level. Here some regions have made first stances in forcing technology vendors to build with security and privacy in mind, aiming to create more secure hard- and software.

How is generative AI helping companies build and strengthen their cyber defences, from prevention to incident response?

Firstly, let’s make sure we are all on the same page, when it comes to generative AI, likely in terms of Large Language Models (LLMs). These are a conglomeration of AI technologies, packaged in a way for a particular use case. Many experts would classify them as machine learning or statistical AI, but with significant NLP (Natural Language Processing) capabilities. There are other areas of generative AI creating visual output, too. These rely on a combination of machine learning, computer vision and deep learning.

I.e. we are looking at technology that creates written (sometimes verbal) or visual output influencing a human being. While attackers may use such technology to improve especially social engineering attacks, defenders are using such technology to enable their staff.

If used well, it may boost the capabilities of even a small organization to defend their business. This can range from more protective areas (e.g. proposing more effective preventive controls (e.g. configuration changes) in large distributed digital landscapes) or augmenting the SecOps Analyst when responding to incidents by utilizing higher fidelity signal, cutting down the noise, ultimately increasing meantime to respond (MTTR) KPIs.

Conversely, what are the challenges of accelerated generative AI growth in cyber security, e.g. biometrics, access control, etc?

Advances in technology have always come with the risk of an idealistic engineering view on the advantages of a solution. An educated approach introducing AI into cyber security and in general into business operations is key to profit from the advantages and manage the risk. No model is without fault or limitations and heavily relies on training data for instance. Data confidentiality, integrity and availability are paramount in context of generative AI.

To what extent is generative AI compromising cyber security, and how can businesses, governments, and society prepare?

Mature cyber security practices, following a risk-based approach, are well versed to introduce AI in a meaningful manner, while advising and supporting other parts of the business to boost their outcome with latest technology. Applying the same practice will enable government and society, too. Obviously, government and in general policy makers will have to create a regulatory framework to prepare and enable businesses and society at large to apply a healthy use of AI. This must not come at the expense of banning AI in general, but allow the society to keep pace with the developments as a sound understanding of AI enables the individual to take the right decisions.