RSAC Reflections: AI Takes Center Stage, But Deep Learning Reigns Supreme
Another exciting, whirlwind RSA Conference (RSAC) has officially wrapped, and the cybersecurity industry is still buzzing over some of the vendor news over the past week. In case you missed it, here are some of our top highlights and key takeaways from RSAC 2024.
Not All AI is Created Equal: Deep Learning in the Spotlight
Generative AI was a hot topic of discussion at RSAC and numerous vendors showcased new capabilities and implementations. But, despite all the excitement, it’s important to note that not all AI is created equal. Our Deep Instinct leadership team spent time with customers, prospects, press, and industry peers to raise greater awareness of our differentiated deep learning (DL) cyber capabilities. In contrast to many machine learning (ML) tools, our technology uses a far more sophisticated set of algorithms that traditional ML models cannot match – which is what makes our Predictive Prevention Platform so effective.
From a media breakfast panel on the topic, to more intimate one-on-one conversations, our team was intent on evangelizing how the only way to effectively combat increasingly sophisticated AI-powered cyber threats is with DL.
Legacy Vendors Tout New AI Promises Based on False Claims
It seemed every vendor felt compelled to promote their newest AI-based offerings, announcing a plethora of AI-related products and advancements, echoing past rushes to adopt and market new tech. While legacy vendors tack on generative AI capabilities to remain relevant, it is not their core competency; they merely use it to augment their existing solution set. In truth it only explains how you were breached. It doesn’t stop it.
This short-sighted approach means the next breach will inevitably happen, forcing security teams to respond, over and over again. Instead of preventing incidents, these AI solutions still operate reactively, allowing disruptions to occur before attempting to mitigate the damage. This “assume breach” mindset is outdated and ineffective, contributing to industry fatigue and defender burnout.
Cybersecurity buyers are jaded and skeptical. They’ve been burned before and can see that innovation is lacking. Basic ML, the type of technology nearly all vendors leverage and promote, cannot keep pace with rapidly evolving AI-powered threats, leaving investments feeling stale almost immediately after purchase.
According to Gartner, global IT spending in 2024 is set to grow by 8% to $5.1 trillion, with 80% of CIOs planning to increase cybersecurity budgets to $215 billion – a 14.3% increase from the $188 billion spent in 2023. This surge in spending underscores the pressing need for more effective solutions.
Here’s the grim truth: 2023 was the worst year on record for defenders, with ransomware payments hitting an all-time high of over $1.1 billion – and we’re on pace to break that mark this year. Despite spending the most as an industry, by any measure, we had the worst year ever. It’s time to wake up and realize our current methods are not working. The cybersecurity community needs to move away from the traditional reactive approach and turn to one rooted in prevention.
Meet DIANNA, the Industry’s Only Prevention-First AI Cyber Companion
In the lead up to RSAC, Deep Instinct’s Artificial Neural Network Assistant (DIANNA) made its grand debut as the industry’s first DL-based cybersecurity companion to provide explainability into unknown threats. DIANNA is like having a virtual team of malware analysts and incident response experts that provide security teams with deep analysis into known and unknown attacks, explaining the techniques of attackers and behaviors of malicious files. What takes a senior SOC analyst hours using multiple tools, DIANNA does in seconds. Our new offering was also featured in CRN’s list of "10 Hot AI Cybersecurity Tools At RSAC 2024.”
No other technology vendor on the market today can replicate this level of analysis and explainability, further underscoring our prevention-first approach to cybersecurity. Given its uniqueness, DIANNA was the talk of the town at our busy RSAC booth.
![Fig 2_RSAC_Deep Instinct Booth.png](https://www.deepinstinct.com/image/bltcc1a937c79745430/6645438f16e6bf2bf558f41c/Fig_2_RSAC_Deep_Instinct_Booth.png)
RSAC made it clear – Deep Learning is the answer to the question of how to predict and prevent the next cyber threat, before it becomes a problem. Deep Instinct can help organizations adopt a proactive, prevention-first approach to cybersecurity, leaving the “assume breach” mindset of EDR in the past once and for all.
Want to see DIANNA and the Deep Instinct Prevention Platform for yourself? Request a demo.