While the global tech giants were battling out their new launches in terms of chat platforms and video to text platforms, Google announced a new free AI Cyber tool to bolster online security. The company in the press announcement said – “We’re open-sourcing Magika, a new, AI-powered tool to aid defenders through file type identification, an essential part of detecting malware.”
Magika is already used to help protect products including Gmail, Drive and Safe Browsing, as well as by our VirusTotal team to foster a safer digital environment. The tool outperforms conventional file identification methods providing an overall 30 per cent accuracy boost and up to 95 per cent higher precision on traditionally hard to identify, but potentially problematic content such as VBA, JavaScript and Powershell.
The company’s $15 million Google.Org Cybersecurity programme is going to be expanded across Europe, and will have AI-focussed modules, and support universities.
In its blog Google said, “Through the AI Cyber Defense Initiative, we are continuing our investment in an AI-ready infrastructure, releasing new tools for defenders, and launching new research and AI security training. These commitments are designed to help AI secure, empower and advance our collective digital future.”
The company stated, they have started the Secure AI Framework, that acts as a vehicle to collaborate on the best practices for securing AI systems. It stated to build on these efforts to foster a more secure AI ecosystem, Google will continue to invest in their secure, AI-ready network of global data centers.
“Over the period 2019 to end 2024, we will have invested over $5 billion in data centers in Europe — helping support secure, reliable access to a range of digital services, including broad generative AI capabilities like our Vertex AI platform,” stated the blog. It stated they need to make new AI innovations available to public sector organisations and businesses of all sizes across industries.
The team also announced its new AI for Cybersecurity cohort for 17 startups from UK, US, and EU under the Google for Startups Growth Academy’s AI for cybersecurity program. The aim is to help strengthen the transatlantic cybersecurity ecosystem.
“We’re committed to advancing research that helps generate breakthroughs in AI-powered security. To support this effort, we’re announcing $2 million in research grants and strategic partnerships that will help strengthen cybersecurity research initiatives using AI, including enhancing code verification, improving understanding of how AI can help with cyber offense and countermeasures for defense, and developing large language models that are more resilient to threats. The funding is supporting researchers at institutions including The University of Chicago, Carnegie Mellon and Stanford.”
Many industry experts believe AI has the power to fight renewed cybersecurity threats and frauds. Brian Hussey, SentinelOne’s Vice President Threat Hunting and DFIR, said in a conversation with edge/ –
“From analysing vast datasets to identifying patterns and anomalies that might go unnoticed by traditional cybersecurity tools, GenAI can process threat intelligence data from various sources, providing actionable insights to cybersecurity professionals. This can assist cybersecurity teams in formulating effective and proactive defence strategies and detecting emerging threats and vulnerabilities.
He added, this year, beyond its impact on cybersecurity, Generative AI will continue to revolutionize content creation, virtual experiences, and problem-solving. Advanced AI models like GPT-4 and DALL-E 3 will bring even more sophistication to generating text and images, garnering new possibilities for creative content and automation.
