Google has introduced a new AI Cyber Defense Initiative, providing investments, skills training, and tools for businesses worldwide.
At the Munich Security Conference, the tech giant unveiled a series of contributions to cybersecurity, aiming to leverage AI’s advantages to enhance cybersecurity.
The company says that the main challenge in cybersecurity has been that attackers need just 1 successful attempt, while defenders “need to deploy the best defenses at all times, across increasingly complex digital terrain — and there’s no margin for error.”
This is the ‘Defender’s Dilemma,’ and there’s never been a reliable way to tip that balance,” Google explains. “AI allows security professionals and defenders to scale their work in threat detection, malware analysis, vulnerability detection, vulnerability fixing and incident response.”
The new offerings to businesses, academic institutions, and researchers include $2 million in funding for AI research initiatives focused on developing resilient large language models (LLMs), code verification, and applying AI in cyber offense and defense strategies.
Google has also chosen 17 startups for a 3-month program designed to boost the “transatlantic cybersecurity ecosystem by supporting the next wave of cyber companies.”
In addition, Google is broadening its Cybersecurity Seminars Program, which was initially introduced to offer cybersecurity training to underserved communities. It’ll now include AI-focused modules accessible to all of Europe.
Magika, Google’s AI for Gmail, Drive, and safe browsing, will become open-source for incorporation into your tools, assisting in the crucial task of identifying file types to detect malware.
“AI gives defenders an edge–removing complexity, adapting to new attacks, and reacting to threats seamlessly and at scale,” said Kent Walker, Google’s President of Global Affairs. “Our AI Cyber Defense Initiative reverses the Defender’s Dilemma, where defenders have to be right all the time and attackers have to be right only once. But to keep up the momentum, we need policies that both mitigate the risks and seize the opportunities of AI.”