It seems that Machine Learning is the new hotness in Information Security. A huge number of security startups in their names that claim that their product will defend or detect more effectively than any other product "because math" and how they use "big data and stuff."
Indeed, math is powerful and large-scale machine learning is an important cornerstone of much of the information systems that we use today. However, not all algorithms and techniques are born equal. Machine Learning is a most powerful tool box, but not every tool can be applied to every problem and that's where the pitfalls lie.
This presentation will describe the different techniques available for data analysis and machine learning for information security, and discuss their strengths and caveats. The Ghost of Marketing Past will also show how similar the unfulfilled promises of deterministic and exploratory analysis were, and how to avoid making the same mistakes again.
Alex Pinto is the Chief Data Scientist of Niddel and the mind behind MLSec Project. He is currently dedicating his waking hours to the development of machine learning algorithms and data science techniques to support the information security monitoring practice. He has currently presented the results of his research at multiple conferences such as Black Hat USA, DEFCON, BSides Las Vegas, BayThreat and ISC2 Security Congress. Alex has over 14 years dedicated to information security solutions architecture, and 2 years in Data Science related work.
Evan Blair is a Co-Founder and the Chief Operating Officer at ZeroFOX. Prior to that, Evan was a member of the Accuvant Leadership Team where he led multi-million dollar Partner Solutions practice. At the time of his departure, Accuvant was the 2nd largest privately held cyber security solutions provider, had recognized over $1 billion in revenue since inception, and had capabilities with over 175 global partners. In 2008, Evan joined Foster at Baltimore-based cyber start-up Ciphent, where he was responsible for executing the marketing and sales strategy for the organization. Charged with the ultimate goals of increasing sales, profitability, and revenue, Evan's department supported the company's three-year revenue growth rate of nearly 1000%. Previously, Evan help financial and business development roles at Application Security Inc. He began his career as a financial analyst with Dresdner Kleinwort in Manhattan, NY and holds a BA in Economics from Wake Forest University.