Artificial intelligence to launch a new age of cybersecurity
#TechWatchbySeb Weekly Issue #23 - May 17th, 2021
Hello my friends 🖐,
and welcome back to the Monday #TechWatchbySeb ☕️. This week we will travel across the U.K. 🇬🇧 after sharing insights on how Artificial Intelligence increases the performance of Cybesecurity applications.
The last couple of months have seen increased activity in Europe around cybersecurity. We have seen great news from Tech companies such as Darktrace which completed a successful IPO on the London Stock Exchange in April 2021. Also, the period has been very active in terms of political decisions regarding data protection, especially toward American tech giants. Over the last week, Facebook was involved in 2 court decisions:
In Germany where Facebook has been told to stop processing German WhatsApp data
In Ireland which allows Irish regulator to proceed with inquiry into Facebook data flows
So what’s behind the growth of cybersecurity in Europe? And what role does Artificial Intelligence technology play in this trend?
Definition of cybersecurity and applications of AI in this field
As the cyber company Kaspersky put it:
Cyber security is the practice of defending computers, servers, mobile devices, electronic systems, networks, and data from malicious attacks. It’s also known as information technology security or electronic information security. The term applies in a variety of contexts, from business to mobile computing, and can be divided into a few common categories:
Network security
Application security
Information security
Operational security
Disaster recovery and business continuity
End-user education
The scope is pretty wide and today it’s hard for any kind of business to ignore the importance of cyberattack prevention. For instance, the Washington Post published that the Global losses from cybercrime skyrocketed to nearly $1 trillion in 2020.
Why is it so important to use Artificial intelligence to have better protection against any kind of Cyberattack?
Before going into detail about its applications, we can remind that Artificial intelligence is built to give computers the ability to replicate the human mind with autonomy and with a good level of responsiveness. Within AI technology there are specialties such as machine learning and deep learning.
Kaspersky identified several use cases for AI in cybersecurity:
Human error in configuration: In the course of constant innovation, computer security has become more layered than ever. Responsive tools could help teams find and mitigate issues that appear as network systems are replaced, modified, and updated.
Human efficiency with repeated activities: where human focus may be slowed by unexpected challenges, a system based on AI and machine learning can move with minimal delay.
Threat alert fatigue: Attack surfaces are increasing as the aforementioned layers of security become more elaborate and sprawling. Proactive action for these identified threats and vulnerabilities is ideal, but many teams lack the time and staffing to cover all their bases.
Threat response time: ML-assisted security can pull data from an attack to be immediately grouped and prepared for analysis. It can provide cybersecurity teams with simplified reports to make processing and decision-making a cleaner job.
New threat identification and prediction: programming based in ML can help highlight commonalities between the new threat and previously identified ones to help spot an attack. This is something that humans cannot effectively do within a timely fashion and further highlights that adaptive security models are necessary.
Staffing capacity: AI-based security tools can take the lead with a less dense team to staff and support it. While this staff will need to keep up with the cutting-edge areas of AI and machine learning, cost and time savings will come alongside the smaller staffing requirements.
Tech ecosystem in Cybersecurity
In a recent analysis by my team at Early Metrics, we found that the global cybersecurity market is expected to be worth $366 billion by 2028.
In a research paper released by my Early Metrics team, it is stated that The global cybersecurity market is expected to be worth $366 billion by 2028.
And as we can see in the graph below, the number of European organisation developing technology within the cybersecurity environment has been growing a lot in the last couple of years. It is estimated that those companies have raised almost $2.2Bn during this period of time.
What are the most funded Cybersecurity tech companies in Europe?
As evidenced by Crunchbase’s data, this is a very active market segment that has attracted funding from major players, including Blackrock, Softbank and Sequoia.
Acronis: cybersecurity company that solves safety, accessibility, privacy, authenticity, and security challenges. The company has raised more than $400M.
Darktrace, AI company that uses cybersecurity solutions to identify, prevent, and eliminate insider threats. The company went public in April 2021.
WISekey, cybersecurity company using blockchain, AI, IoT technologies, and security to counterfeit fraud of bankcard and transactions. The company went public in 2016.
What are the most active funds in Cybersecurity in Europe?
We can see a very strong dominance of US and Israelian fundings around Cybersecurity technologies. In the chart below, we can see that cybersecurity firms are primarily funded by American and Israeli VC funds. In fact, US-based funds accounted for 76% of global cybersecurity funding in 2020 (Crunchbase).
While doing some research, I couldn’t find any European fund specialised in Cybersecurity. I could only find TIIN Capital based in the Netherlands which has raised a fund dedicated to cybertech companies in 2019. However, we can see some corporates active in this sector such as Prosegur, Europe Assistance or Thales.
This lack of funding from European players can be considered as alarming given our increasing reliance on digital solutions and data sharing. Also, we can see that this industry represents the 5th most active tech industry worldwide with almost $8Bn invested in 2020.
When I set out to write this article, I was quite excited as I anticipated to find that Europe held a strong position in this space. However, the more I researched, the more I struggled to get accurate data on Europe’s cybersecurity ecosystem.
Hopefully, Darktrace’s IPO will open the door for more successful tech companies and encourage more funds to specialise in cybersecurity.
#TECHWATCHBYSEB — WEEKLY ISSUE #23
🥇 Zero-trust security company Wandera 🇬🇧acquired for $400 million
Cybersecurity company Wandera, founded in London in 2012 by Israeli brothers Roy and Eldar Tuvey, has been acquired by U.S. company Jamf for $400 million.
🥈Arqit 🇬🇧 to go public via $1.4B SPAC deal
London-based quantum technology encryption startup, Arqit, recently announced its plans to go public. It has merged with a special purpose acquisition company, Centricus Acquisition Corp. With this development, the combined valuation of the business will be approx $1.4B.
So, that’s it for this week, wishing you a great week ahead🖐
Stay safe ❤️