As the new year begins, Darktrace customers are setting goals and making plans for upcoming IT and cyber security projects. 

While Darktrace experts have already shared their predictions about the cyber security landscape in 2023, companies are also preparing for industry-specific threats.  

“We are anticipating increased cyber security risks in the IoT space as 5G-enabled devices become more prevalent,” said George Ho, Vice President of Information Technology at RioCan, a Canadian real-estate investment trust.  

In the sports world, Robert Cordova, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer of the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team, is looking out for supply chain attacks, multi-factor authentication vulnerabilities, and NBA-specific threats. 

With challenges like these in mind, customers are planning security projects that ensure their ongoing business continuity. 

“Functionality and baseline capabilities in our cyber stack are mostly matured,” Cordova said. “Our focus for the next year will be optimizing existing tools and documenting administrative processes, controls, policies, etc., unless something changes in cybercrime TTP that warrants a new approach.” 

Security teams can leverage Darktrace’s Self-Learning AI for dynamic, bespoke security, and are increasingly integrating Darktrace with other tools, such as Microsoft Defender and Salesforce. Users can tailor their Darktrace coverage by customizing settings, building filters, and adding models. 

Customers are not only looking at their security stacks in 2023. Some like Sellen Construction, a Seattle-based construction company, have big IT plans.

“We are undertaking a huge construction platform transformation, including our ERP and an HIRS and a CRM in one year,” said Jenny Moshea, Chief Information Officer at Sellen Construction. These plans will likely be resource-intensive, so Sellen Construction’s team appreciates having Darktrace AI do some of the heavy lifting when it comes to cyber security. “That’s a success because I can pivot,” Moshea added. “Darktrace is creating space for my team to go and learn more in the cyber world.” 

In addition to the abilities of Darktrace DETECT™ + Darktrace RESPOND™ to identify and neutralize attacks at machine speed, the Cyber AI Analyst can sort through billions of data points to investigate anomalous activity. The Cyber AI Analyst then uses natural language processing and Explainable AI to generate understandable reports, greatly reducing teams’ time-to-meaning. 

Like Sellen Construction, Alleyn’s School, a day school in London, has resource-intensive IT goals as it plans to increase its internet capabilities. Schools are often targeted by threat actors and can be exposed to malware when students bring their own devices. That’s why Alleyn’s School relies on Darktrace to provide security, giving time back to the IT team to work on its internet expansion project. “Darktrace gives me peace of mind. It will ensure our network is safe,” said Matt Britland, the Director of IT and Digital Strategy at Alleyn’s School.

While Darktrace supports customers as they pursue their new year’s resolutions, many are looking forward to seeing how new Darktrace products can further benefit their environments and workflows in the upcoming year. 

Customers have shown continued interest in Darktrace PREVENT™, the latest product family that focuses on cyber risk mitigation. PREVENT reduces cyber risk both on the attack surface and inside the organization. It leverages AI to establish critical assets, analyze and test every possible attack path, and help security teams prioritize their time where it matters the most. PREVENT’s findings feed into DETECT + RESPOND to heighten their sensitivity around risky assets, hardening the security stack continuously and autonomously as part of the Cyber AI Loop.

“I am looking forward to having a look at PREVENT/E2E as it could really help close any internal vulnerabilities and model potential attack scenarios,” Britland said.

Customers are also anticipating the launch of HEAL, the last product family to complete the Cyber AI Loop. HEAL will help organizations become more cyber resilient by reverting systems back to their last healthy state in the aftermath of a cyber-attack, and will be released this year.