Darktrace Cyber Security Startup History

Darktrace 2019 Cyber Security Startup History

Darktrace is an artificial intelligence company that specializes in cybersecurity. It was brought to existence in 2013 when a slew of experts came together to help organizations protect their businesses from virtual threats. With headquarters in both San Francisco and Cambridge, the team involved cyber intelligence specialists and Cambridge university scholars, including British entrepreneur Dr. Michael Lynch who believed machine learning would make a huge difference in the digital world.

This brought in-depth know-how on artificial intelligence and mathematics to the table. Soon the technology proved more than successful in detecting a multitude of online dangers, such as latent vulnerabilities, state-sponsored espionage, insider attacks, and cloud-based threats.

Darktrace was funded by a venture capital firm named Invoke Capital, which belongs to Lynch. He is mostly known for selling his start-up Autonomy to computer giant HP. It is estimated that the Cambridge University graduate put between £630,000 and £1.3 million into the cybersecurity company.

Launching Darktrace Enterprise

One of the first and biggest products created by the firm is Enterprise Immune System. It can detect threats in real time, provide the necessary network visualization, and alert the IT department to the problem right away. As well as that, it can further investigate the matter and give the team additional information.

The way it works is by analyzing what is “normal” for each and every device, subnet, and user in a given organization. In other words, it tracks down daily routine operations that happen within the company, such as what files employees work with, whether they are using a workstation or a mobile device, and at what time they typically clock in.

This is what determines the baseline. Any significant deviation from the usual activity immediately triggers an alert message that notifies whoever is in charge of this to a possible attack. For example, if someone is attempting to connect with more external devices than normal or access a glut of information, it is immediately considered fishy by the system. The goal is to identify and stop threats before they have occurred rather than remove them when they have already done harm.

This is based on the way our immune systems work to ward off viruses. They learn which cells do or do not belong to our bodies and this is how they know how to protect us. By understanding what is normal, they can quickly detect anomalies and take action against them.

The Era of Self-learning Cyber Intelligence Platform

In 2014, the company launched a new version of its technology, which had a number of unique features. One of these is network, device and user correlation. It works by establishing mathematical models in real time that involve each network, user, and device. Then it connects all the findings to determine whether there is a certain threat scenario to beware of.

Another feature is total network immersion in real time. It delivers information about all network interactions, such as border data, log files, device-to-device communications, and internet channels, etc.. Along with that, the new system included 3D threat visualization, which enables customers to analyze internal networks. What really seems to work here is the self-learning mechanism which can adapt to different evolving environments, just like the human body does.

Releasing Darktrace Antigena, the First-Ever Autonomous Response Technology

In 2016, the leadership of the firm on the artificial intelligence scene was reinforced with a new product called Antigena. The technology generates autonomous responses that take measures against cyber threats that are in progress. This helps to limit their spread and the damage they do. Let’s say some danger befalls your system at night. With other systems, you will see the alert once you get back to your computer in the morning. By the time you do something to stop the malicious threat, it will have done plenty of harm already. What is different about Antigena is that it can take action for you immediately. It acts as a digital antibody.

The things that it can do for your organization include marking different pieces of content for further tracking (e.g. emails); semi-quarantining/quarantining devices, systems, and users; and slowing down/stopping malicious activity. It is important to note that these actions do not interrupt normal business processes.

The Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation 2016

Over the years, Darktrace has won a great deal of prizes, and not by surprise. Their number is so high that it is going to take forever to list all of them. There is one award which is worth mentioning though and this is the Queen’s Award for Enterprise, Innovation which was bestowed to the company in 2016. Then, in 2018, it also got the Queen’s Award for International Trade.

Fighting Back the WannaCry Attack

In May 2017, the WannaCry ransomware attack struck computers around the world that ran Microsoft Windows. The hackers demanded that owners pay ransoms in Bitcoin in order to take back control of their data. The initial infection is considered to have started in Asia through an exposed SMB port. In just a day, over 230,000 devices around 150 countries were impacted.

According to Europol, EU’s law enforcement agency, the scale of the ransomware was unprecedented, the most affected territories being Taiwan, India, Ukraine, and Russia. The attack sieged organizations and companies like Renault, Nissan Motor Manufacturing, Deutsche Bahn, Spain’s Telefónica, and England’s National Health Service. Some of these had to stop production to prevent the ransomware from spreading to all of their systems.

And while most traditional security defenses failed to detect or neutralize the problem, Darktrace Antigena was quick to react, keeping all consumer networks safe from the imminent danger. It is no surprise that the firm’s sales skyrocketed immediately after that.

Start of Darktrace Industrial

In November 2017, the firm came up with Industrial - a special technology that can detect latent vulnerabilities and cyber threats in OT environments like IT networks and SCADA systems. Along with that, it offers real-time visibility on enterprise and industrial networks alike. This enables IT specialists to protect their systems from threats the moment they hit. Similarly to the other Darktrace products, this one monitors everything that is happening on networks and devices, creating a pattern for each user and “learning normal behaviors”. It is in this way that it can identify potential threats and react to them before they grow to huge proportions.

Stopping Hackers from Scooping Millions from a Finance Company in Singapore

In 2018, hackers were on the brink of stealing millions of dollars from a Singaporean financial services company when its senior manager opened a phishing email. The attack struck his computer right away. It would have spread to all other devices across the network, causing devastating losses for the organization, hadn’t it been for the Darktrace software to jump into action. The technology kept the hackers from accessing confidential information, send malicious e-mails to clients, or perform bank transactions. Fortunately, no serious harm was done.

Hacked Data of Angela Merkel and Other German Politicians

At the end of 2018, sensitive data about a large number of German politicians was posted on Twitter by someone with a username @_0rbit. It involved email addresses, documents, and phone numbers. The hackers’ attack affected Chancellor Angela Merkel and representatives of all political parties in Germany. The only exception was the far-right political group called Alternative for Germany (AfG).

The funny thing was that the data leak was not noticed until a few days after it had occurred. The Twitter account was eventually suspended but that didn’t shush the mouths of the villains. They provided back-up links of the breached files on multiple platforms for everyone to download. Darktrace’s director of threat hunting Max Heinemeyer commented that the motive behind this deed is still unclear. He expressed his concern that cyber-attacks are making their way to intervening in democratic processes.

According to leading cyber intelligence expert Justin Fier of Darktrace, it is expected that the attacks will be even more elaborate and sophisticated in 2019, with AI in the epicenter of events.

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