Challenges in cybersecurity have grown exponentially over the last decades. From defending against primitive viruses to countering sophisticated nation-state cyber operations, the security field has undergone a massive transformation. Securing networks, computing systems, people, processes, and information became even more crucial since our recent digital transformation.
Traditional solutions, like firewalls, have proven their eectiveness to a degree but are not foolproof. Threats like spear-phishing emails continue to bypass even the most robust defences. Recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems can enhance these traditional solutions by adapting and evolving through learning from data and experience.
The VUB AI Lab is involved with the CSAI project, which is a project that pushes the boundaries of AI for cybersecurity. In this project, the AI Lab focuses on identifying and developing methods, components, and technologies that improve cybersecurity operations. We aim to move beyond automated data analysis by researching approaches that oer a degree of “intelligence”, as machine learning algorithms enable computer systems to learn from data.
The VUB AI Lab collaborates with other Belgian research groups and industry partners for this project. Industry partners specifically allow research groups to identify use cases relevant to industry, including anomaly detection in mail trac and domain requests. The VUB AI Lab shifted the focus from isolated events to an agent-based asset-centric analysis, allowing for security analysis using a comprehensive “bigger picture”. By analysing interactions between assets (endpoints, users, mail addresses, and more) and looking at the behaviour of these assets, we identify abnormal behavioural patterns which might point to potential cybersecurity incidents.
This interdisciplinary project is a pioneering eort to harness the potential of the AI field for cybersecurity. We invite companies to contact the VUB AI Lab to explore potential collaboration opportunities, identifying new use cases using their data.
We look forward to partnering with you to enhance the state-of-the-art in network, data, and operational security.
● prof. dr. Johan Loeckx – Head of Applied Research – jloeckx@ai.vub.ac.be
● dr. Leticia Arco García – Post-Doctoral Researcher – larcogar@vub.be
● Laetitia d’Ornano – Project Manager – laetitia.dornano@vub.be
