Explore the intersection of AI and threat intelligence to understand how organizations leverage advanced algorithms to analyze vast data sets swiftly, stay ahead of emerging threats, and enhance cybersecurity posture.
Bryan, please shed some light on how integrating data analytics and leveraging AI contribute to real-time analysis and improvement of an organization’s security posture.
The ability to make real-time decisions on possible threats has always been reliant on the capability to analyze large amounts of data quickly from as many relevant sources as possible. With current and evolving AI platforms, data can be analyzed from a large volume of sources, automatically and without significant human intervention. An organization’s security posture can be greatly enhanced when restrictions on data analysis consumption and time can be overcome with AI and automation.
In the field of threat intelligence, how does AI assist in analyzing extensive data to stay ahead of emerging threats, and what specific advantages does this bring to organizations?
The quality of threat intelligence is wholly based on the amount and validity of data it is drawing from and how quickly it can be correlated for an organization. AI has changed the game since threat intelligence activities can now be done faster and with greater accuracy at a lower cost. Security leaders have historically had to carefully select what data feeds they can consume and afford, and then assign humans to interpret that data for action. With the maturity of AI solutions today, security teams don’t have to choose between data sources, and these systems can often do all of the heavy lifting on analyzing results real-time.
Can you elaborate on how AI-powered authentication systems enhance user authentication and authorization, especially in monitoring and analyzing user behavior for unusual activities during login or access attempts?
AI-powered authentication systems have the advantage of interpreting large quantities of data about a user prior to log in. At real-time speed, these tools can correlate different data elements related to a log in event. For example, they can understand geographic location, machine, biometric inputs, and other elements to determine if a user is legitimate or if some anomalous data requires further evaluation prior to authentication.
What unique insights does Trace3’s managed security evaluation services provide in understanding a cyberattacker’s mindset, and how does it contribute to enhancing an organization’s overall security measures?
Our Security Intelligence team is unique in that we leverage AI-powered tools, along with human, hacker-like behavior, to realistically impersonate the actions of a legitimate threat actor. We perform the actions threat actors would in order to expose vulnerabilities and weaknesses in defenses to help organizations quickly and efficiently remediate them and enhance their overall security posture.
Considering the dynamic nature of cyber threats, how does Trace3 ensure that its platform and solutions remain adaptable and responsive to emerging challenges in the cybersecurity landscape?
Trace3 leverages a multilayer approach to securing our environment. We employ state of the art cyber technologies along with using a 3rd party to help us monitor our system’s heath 24/7/365. We are continually evaluating the health of our environment and always looking to leverage cutting edge cyber solutions that speed our reaction time and increase our ability to analyze large amounts of data.
In the context of behavioral analysis, how does Trace3 utilize machine learning to analyze user and entity behavior, and what kind of unusual patterns does it identify to indicate compromised accounts or malicious activities?
Trace3 is fortunate to have relationships with many of the most cutting-edge, AI-powered cyber solution manufacturers. These solutions are deployed across our environment at various points of entry and access so that we are able to quickly understand what is happening within our legitimate user community. Anomalous behavior is monitored and actioned at real-time speeds based on data correlated from various sources.
Could you provide examples of how AI is leveraged in predictive analysis to anticipate potential vulnerabilities and weaknesses in a system, allowing organizations to proactively address potential cyber threats?
No system can absolutely predict what is going to happen in your environment, there is no crystal ball solution. That said, AI-powered cyber solutions seek to analyze and correlate as much data as possible, as quickly as possible to provide organizations as close to real time analytics so that action can be taken to prevent malicious activity from occurring. This is the true value of AI systems is that they are faster, more comprehensive, and more accurate than traditional cyber solutions and human analysts. As an example, instead of having to prioritize data sources with traditional methods, AI-powered solutions are cost-effective and efficient allowing for all relevant sources to be ingested and evaluated greatly enhancing the likelihood of anomalous behavior being seen and prevented from causing damage.
How does Trace3 implement AI-driven automation for incident response, and what impact does this swift response have on mitigating security incidents and reducing the overall impact of cybersecurity attacks?
A combination of leading-edge AI tools and a trusted partnership with a monitoring provider help us react quickly to incidents and mitigate their impact. Traditional incident response is highly manual and typically involves interfacing with multiple systems. AI can simplify the response process, handling these interfaces automatically and much faster. The output from this analysis can be handed off to a human engineer to action and apply any remediation required.
How does Trace3 employ AI for continuous monitoring, and what specific measures are taken to identify and respond to suspicious activities or potential intrusions in real-time, both in traditional networks and cloud environments?
Our solutions have been deployed to our most significant access points and combined with our 24/7/365 monitoring, we are able to quickly ascertain if malicious activity is occurring. Most of our data resides in cloud environments and so our AI solutions are deployed to those environment to monitor any behavior that could resemble a bad actor.
Bryan Kissinger
PhD. SVP Security Solutions & CISO. at Trace3
Bryan C. Kissinger, PhD is a seasoned IT and security professional with over 20 years of experience leading global teams in the successful delivery of technology solutions that enable business value. He is known for his ability to rapidly mature IT risk and information security programs and quickly deliver on the implementation of emerging technologies to solve complex business issues. He has served as the information security leader at multiple large healthcare organizations—this expertise is coupled with Big 4 consulting leadership across emerging technology, financial, retail, and government sectors. Using his unique business-minded approach, he is an advocate for, and has implemented many, next-generation security solutions focused on preventing and detecting current and anticipated threat vectors.
Dr. Kissinger holds a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from the University of Maryland, a master’s degree in Business Administration, and a PhD in Information Technology Management. His certifications include CISSP, CISA, CCNA, CWNA, and MCSE.
Dr. Kissinger is a Navy veteran, having served as a Surface Warfare Officer for seven years on active duty with tours in the Western Pacific and Persian Gulf theaters.
He currently serves as Senior Vice President of Security Solutions and Chief Information Security Officer for Trace3, and splits his time between Miami Beach, FL and Asheville, NC.
