SparkCognition,
identified on Google as “The Cognitive Security Analytics Company,” is an Austin-based start-up that is applying
IBM Watson technology to the solution of cyber-security problems. SparkCognition Senior VP Usman Shuja spoke
today with Etopia News to discuss how it does this.
He began
by explaining that it keeps its massive security corpus/repository/data base
current by constantly searching for new information about cyber-threats and how
to remediate them. Humans play a significant
role in finding new threads about threats and other security-related data for
Watson to ingest.
Shuja said
that his company’s SparkSecure system, powered by IBM Watson, is ideally
suited to deal with the kinds of cyber-attacks on commercial and
governmental systems that have been so much in the news of late.
Starting
with proprietary algorithms for detecting anomalous, malicious intrusions into
the computer systems it is protecting, SparkSecure also uses other techniques,
including “machine learning” to constantly upgrade its own capabilities. This currently takes the form of “supervised
learning” in which humans provide feedback to Watson, so it can learn from its
mistakes, as well as strengthen and reinforce the correct actions it has been
taking in certain circumstances.
Watson
attaches a “confidence level” to its recommendations, which allows its human
users to assess the relative usefulness of various suggestions.
The
combination of SparkSecure and Watson enables the use of “predictive analytics,”
wherein Watson, using the massive security repository it is operating with, can
identify threats in large volumes of data, and deliver signatures of those
threats to the IT staff responsible for system security. SparkSecure has successfully discovered
several new threats.
According
to Shuja, an average of fifteen percent of a company’s computer traffic is
malicious. SparkSecure, he says, can
identify that traffic and protect against it, thereby reducing the strain on
system resources that these threats create.
Asked
about the possible use of Watson to parse and analyze legal material, he said
that this was a use case similar to what Watson is already doing in the medical
field, where it diagnoses disease on the basis of the data presented to it and its
understanding of a massive corpus of medical information, greater than what any
one person could assimilate and recall.
He said SparkCognition had no plans for such a general legal system, but
that it did have a goal of helping a client develop a system for
Watson-mediated compliance assistance on its road map.
He further
explained that the Watson Ecosystem was a program to involve developers in the
discovery of new use cases for Watson.
He said that SparkCognition was a Premium Partner in this ecosystem, and
that it was the only Watson-based company working on cognitive solutions
against cyber-attacks. “Nobody else,” he
said, “is using Watson for cyber-security.”
He pointed
out that companies using SparkSecure have not yet reported any security
breaches.
He also
mentioned that using SparkSecure can reduce 10 hours spent doing remediation to
8 hours.
He
emphasized that the SparkSecure model means that no client data is shared, but
that successful remediation strategies used in one instance are added to the security
repository for re-use in new situations.
In Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots, author John Markoff distinguishes
between AI and IA, Artificial Intelligence that does work by itself, and
Intelligence Augmentation technologies, that assist humans in doing their work
better. Shuja made it clear that
SparkSecure “is an augmentation use case.”
He said the system allows for an “auto-remediation” mode, but that most
of the company’s clients use it to assist them in their work, not to replace staff.
He said it
was inevitable that malicious hackers would develop innovative new attacks, but
that the company was constantly on the alert for them and was prepared to meet
any such new challenges.
Asked
about a potential IPO, the senior VP said that, based on the traction they were
already getting, they ought to be able “to build a large, successful company.” He thought they could do this “in a couple of
years or less.” He said it was possible that a larger company could acquire SparkCognition. “Time
will tell,” he concluded.
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