Why McAfee Is Integrating AI Into Next Gen Security

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are often over-used terms in a modern cyber-security context, but that doesn't mean they aren't useful for helping organizations and vendors to improve. Among the many vendors that have embraced AI is McAfee, which is integrating different capabilities across its portfolio. Beyond the buzzword hype, AI has real value, as well as real potential for both defenders as well as adversaries, according to McAfee SVP and CTO Steve Grobman. In a video interview with eWEEK, Grobman provides insight into the current state of AI for cyber-security and how it is being used today. "One of the things I talked about in my keynote at RSA Conference is being able to use artificial intelligence to generate targeted content for a specific user," Grobman told eWEEK. "It provides a bad actor with the effective of spear phishing but given that it's driven through AI based automation, it can scale to the levels of traditional phishing attacks." While attackers can potentially use AI to scale up new kinds of attacks, AI is already being used by cyber-security vendors to advance defensive capabilities. Grobman said that AI can be used for multiple purposes by vendors, including improved threat detection.