IBM Grows Patent Portfolio With Cyber-Security Innovations

IBM announced on Jan. 8 that it was awarded 9,100 patents in 2018, once again topping the list for the most U.S. patents granted in a given year. A core component of IBM's patent haul in 2018 was in cyber-security innovation, with more than 1,400 granted patents. Among the security patents granted to IBM in 2018 is one for combating voice phishing, an activity that is also referred to as "vishing." IBM was also granted a patent for optimizing security analysis in cloud software-as-a-service (SaaS) environments that can help organizations correlate malicious activities. Another interesting security patent from IBM has to do with container security, enabling improved isolation capabilities. "What the 1,400 patents shows is that IBM is doing a big push on cyber-security and it has become a key pillar of our DNA," Marc Ph. Stoecklin, principal research scientist and manager of Cognitive Cybersecurity Intelligence at IBM Research, told eWEEK. "After all, cyber-security is going to become one of the key pain points of every organization out there."