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Japan Leads Push For AI-Based Anti-Cyberattack Solutions (nikkei.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the fight-fire-with-fire dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Japanese firms NTT Communications and SoftBank are working to develop new artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, offering cyber-attack protection services to their customers. Up until recently, AI-based security systems were only used for certain scenarios, in online fraud detection for example. The new offerings will be the first commercially-available platforms of their type for use in a wide range of applications.

34 comments

  1. damn, first i read 'cynertank' by karlandtanya · · Score: 1

    No dinochrome brigade...for now.

    --
    "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
    1. Re:damn, first i read 'cynertank' by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

      If all it does is block pointless first posts and other childish idiocy then I for one bow down before our new robot overlords

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

    2. Re: damn, first i read 'cynertank' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Geez ian have you even read the classics? /. What has happened to you?

  2. Re: damn, first i read 'cybertank' by karlandtanya · · Score: 1

    cybertank. Bleah. Touch screen at half past 5. Time to get up and walk dogs.
    lenny has better things to do (or worse things to not do)

    --
    "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
  3. Clarify... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This seems like it could well be a viable thing; but 'AI-based' is serious weasel-word territory: is a Baysian spam filter an "AI-based anti-spam solution"? It's hard to argue with the notion that identifying anomalous activity in large volumes of traffic is a problem that might be amenable to statistical methods and assorted heuristics; but what exactly qualifies or disqualifies something for 'AI-based', 'deep learning', and similar buzzwords?

    1. Re:Clarify... by Rinikusu · · Score: 5, Funny

      In their case, when it detects a cyber attack, it signals the giant mecha robot station in LEO to launch powered cybernetic suits that enter the earths atmosphere and land on top of the attack command and control. These suits then rip the roofs off the houses/offices of the attackers and pulls their pasty, fat asses out of their chairs and slice them to pieces using energy blade weapons. Unless the attackers are female, at which point they are returned to the giant mecha robot station to be brainwashed and trained as cybernetic suit pilots with psychic powers and fucked up emotional issues of identity, purpose, and a weird love 2+n(angle).

      --
      If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
    2. Re:Clarify... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It has to be based on the fourth generations of computers programmed entirely with Prolog.

    3. Re:Clarify... by yes-but-no · · Score: 1

      One of the aspects of AI/machine-learning is deep down it's only one algorithm. Just like a human mind/brain, it learns any skill-- the underlying brain structure/neurons is the same. It can do things like object recognition in images(already available in google my-photos), facial recognition, voice recognition, language translation etc.

      So to call something as AI it must just take in huge amounts of data and figure out a structure/classification in the data all by itself. It's like you are given 100 pictures of cats and dogs (50 each) and then a new unforeseen picture is shown, the system tells it's a cat or a dog. The system was never told first there are two classes of objects (ie dogs/cats).it automatically figures out there are two "types" of objects [may do something like curve fitting -- say in simplistic 2D, it's two straight lines..one for dogs and another for cats.. a new point is given and you figure out if it's closer to one of the lines]

      So in this case, their system [if it's truly AI and not just using the buzzword to grab attention] should automatically figure out what a normal traffic pattern is and what an attack pattern is; and then take mitigation steps. That is all they need as input is the traffic data [like a network's netflow data]

    4. Re:Clarify... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm fairly certain you have no idea what you're talking about.

    5. Re:Clarify... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Snort plugs some bayesian alerting and has done so for ages now. Also sourcefire has some cool tools that also help a lot in threat analysis, thwarting and counterattack But from the marketing perspective I mean yeah, its obvious firewalls will evolve towards some "AI Based" thingie that will be sold as an actual solution, network people will buy them and hold the configuration language as if it was the ancient scrolls.

      This industry man.... is shit.

    6. Re:Clarify... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > it signals the giant mecha robot station

      That's so 80s! Nowadays the preferred weapon of choice is the moe-bomb (also known as kawaii/chibi/nendroid). One pink Pzkw Aus IV.H with 5 schoolgirls in it easily defeats Godzilla + space battleship + a legion of bipedal combat robots.

    7. Re:Clarify... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      is a Baysian spam filter an "AI-based anti-spam solution"?

      If the probabilities are hard coded, then no. If it learns and updates itself, then yes, that is AI. AI is determined by behavior, not mechanism.

      what exactly qualifies or disqualifies something for 'AI-based'

      Programs that learn and adapt are AI.

      'deep learning', and similar buzzwords?

      "Deep learning" refers to neural nets that have more than one hidden layer and are thus "deep". They are usually based on RBMs. "Deep learning" has a very specific meaning, and is not a "buzzword".

    8. Re: Clarify... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So sort of like jail bot from super jail? I can dig it.

    9. Re:Clarify... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By definition AI is unprogrammable. If it is a program, it is not AI.

  4. Employment Secured by monkeyxpress · · Score: 1

    This is great. I sadly missed out (was too young) for the whole Y2K money fest, but I saw the new BMWs and expensive vacations that many of my older computing peers undertook as a result of the exorbitant amounts of money they charged to review old source code. I also knew enough then to realise that about 95% of what 'experts' were saying on the TV was nothing more than fear mongering.

    Anyway with this cyber-warfare stuff kicking in there should be no shortage of cushy contract work for decades to come. The military industrial complex has arrived, and it's ability to convert fear into profit is without end.

    1. Re:Employment Secured by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 1

      The Beltway Bandits are several years ahead of you. They all glommed onto "cybersecurity" as the next big cash cow following the fading of "counterterrorism." 2009-2011 was a really good time to own a small contracting firm that specialized in cybersecurity, because Northrop, Lockheed, General Dynamics, etc, all went on a buyout spree trying to get both contracts and expertise. I only wish I'd had the foresight/connections at the time..

  5. Unimpressed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What, no giant robots piloted by angsty teenage orphans? Bored now.

  6. Skynet ? by jcdr · · Score: 4, Informative

    At least a step in that direction.

    1. Re:Skynet ? by BenJaminus · · Score: 1

      Or codenamed "Project 2501"

    2. Re: Skynet ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Reactive barriers

    3. Re:Skynet ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dammit, yes it's Skynet. I for one welcome our new AI overlords.

    4. Re:Skynet ? by greg4338 · · Score: 1

      Remember, Novell Netware was going to develop self-awareness and slay us all. Skynet is patiently assuming control of civilian computer systems, under the guise of a computer virus.

  7. skynet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I for one welcome our new skynet overlord

    1. Re:skynet by Sla$hPot · · Score: 0

      Hopefully Arnold will be back before it's to late

  8. Useless AI based anti-cyberattack solutions .. by nickweller · · Score: 2

    Until these innovators can design a computer that can tell the difference between data and code and don't execute code downloaded over the Internet, then such solutions are just so much snake oil.

  9. Why not solve this instead? by ka9dgx · · Score: 1

    Instead of assuming that the programs you run can be trusted, flip the assumption, and a lot of "cyber security | cyber war" crap goes away. This can be fixed, folks.

    1. Re:Why not solve this instead? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Flip the assumption? So we should assume that the trust we run can be programmed?

  10. What if the AI is subverted? by Viol8 · · Score: 1

    And no one notices? Relying on a machine to do all the work sounds a bit like leaving a dog to guard against other dogs. It might work or they might end up sniffing each others balls.

  11. mark my words... by bobaferret · · Score: 1

    This will NOT end well.....

    1. Re:mark my words... by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 1

      Don't worry - they're planning to partner with the Japanese robotics company, Cyberdyne ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.... ) to make a powerful AI system that will protect their customers on the internet at first, and possibly even later in the physical world.

      It's all perfectly safe....

  12. Cool! by ememisya · · Score: 1

    So maybe we can hack the program to attack, I don't know, Pearl Harbor? Better be some good code running on their own hardware by people who eat nigiri for breakfast. When it works it would be awesome, but when that update goes wrong it could be hell.

  13. Re:Clarify... cuteness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > AI-based is serious weasel-word territory

    You got it wrong. In the japanese language ai means love. Therefore said system won't be AI-based (i.e. clever) but AE (artifical emotion) based. It will look like a miniskirt schoolgirl android with ankle-lenght neon hair and high EQ. She says "for love and justice I shall punish you" and then goes on to convince hackers cease intrusions but devote their time to doujin instead or create new Vocaloid hits.

  14. Typical japanese by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why can't they just use systemd like the rest of the world?

  15. They just want by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    another Ghost in the Shell movie.