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September 23, 2024

How AI can help CISOs navigate the global cyber talent shortage

The global cybersecurity skills gap is widening, leaving many organizations vulnerable to increasing cyber threats. This blog explores how CISOs can implement AI strategies to make the most of their existing workforce through automation, consolidation and education.
Inside the SOC
Darktrace cyber analysts are world-class experts in threat intelligence, threat hunting and incident response, and provide 24/7 SOC support to thousands of Darktrace customers around the globe. Inside the SOC is exclusively authored by these experts, providing analysis of cyber incidents and threat trends, based on real-world experience in the field.
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The Darktrace Community
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23
Sep 2024

The global picture

4 million cybersecurity professionals are needed worldwide to protect and defend the digital world – twice the number currently in the workforce.1

Innovative technologies are transforming business operations, enabling access to new markets, personalized customer experiences, and increased efficiency. However, this digital transformation also challenges Security Operations Centers (SOCs) with managing and protecting a complex digital environment without additional resources or advanced skills.

At the same time, the cybersecurity industry is suffering a severe global skills shortage, leaving many SOCs understaffed and under-skilled. With a 72% increase in data breaches from 2021-20232, SOCs are dealing with overwhelming alert volumes from diverse security tools. Nearly 60% of cybersecurity professionals report burnout3, leading to high turnover rates. Consequently, only a fraction of alerts are thoroughly investigated, increasing the risk of undetected breaches. More than half of organizations that experienced breaches in 2024 admitted to having short-staffed SOCs.4

How AI can help organizations do more with less

Cyber defense needs to evolve at the same pace as cyber-attacks, but the global skills shortage is making that difficult. As threat actors increasingly abuse AI for malicious purposes, using defensive AI to enable innovation and optimization at scale is reshaping how organizations approach cybersecurity.

The value of AI isn’t in replacing humans, but in augmenting their efforts and enabling them to scale their defense capabilities and their value to the organization. With AI, cybersecurity professionals can operate at digital speed, analyzing vast data sets, identifying more vulnerabilities with higher accuracy, responding and triaging faster, reducing risks, and implementing proactive measures—all without additional staff.

Research indicates that organizations leveraging AI and automation extensively in security functions—such as prevention, detection, investigation, or response—reduced their average mean time to identify (MTTI) and mean time to contain (MTTC) data breaches by 33% and 43%, respectively. These organizations also managed to contain breaches nearly 100 days faster on average compared to those not using AI and automation.5

First, you've got to apply the right AI to the right security challenge. We dig into how different AI technologies can bridge specific skills gaps in the CISO’s Guide to Navigating the Cybersecurity Skills Shortage.

Cases in point: AI as a human force multiplier

Let’s take a look at just some of the cybersecurity challenges to which AI can be applied to scale defense efforts and relieve the burden on the SOC. We go further into real-life examples in our white paper.

Automated threat detection and response

AI enables 24/7 autonomous response, eliminating the need for after-hours SOC shifts and providing security leaders with peace of mind. AI can scale response efforts by analyzing vast amounts of data in real time, identifying anomalies, and initiating precise autonomous actions to contain incidents, which buys teams time for investigation and remediation.  

Triage and investigation

AI enhances the triage process by automatically categorizing and prioritizing security alerts, allowing cybersecurity professionals to focus on the most critical threats. It creates a comprehensive picture of an attack, helps identify its root cause, and generates detailed reports with key findings and recommended actions.  

Automation also significantly reduces overwhelming alert volumes and high false positive rates, enabling analysts to concentrate on high-priority threats and engage in more proactive and strategic initiatives.

Eliminating silos and improving visibility across the enterprise

Security and IT teams are overwhelmed by the technological complexity of operating multiple tools, resulting in manual work and excessive alerts. AI can correlate threats across the entire organization, enhancing visibility and eliminating silos, thereby saving resources and reducing complexity.

With 88% of organizations favoring a platform approach over standalone solutions, many are consolidating their tech stacks in this direction. This consolidation provides native visibility across clouds, devices, communications, locations, applications, people, and third-party security tools and intelligence.

Upskilling your existing talent in AI

As revealed in the State of AI Cybersecurity Survey 2024, only 26% of cybersecurity professionals say they have a full understanding of the different types of AI in use within security products.6

Understanding AI can upskill your existing staff, enhancing their expertise and optimizing business outcomes. Human expertise is crucial for the effective and ethical integration of AI. To enable true AI-human collaboration, cybersecurity professionals need specific training on using, understanding, and managing AI systems. To make this easier, the Darktrace ActiveAI Security Platform is designed to enable collaboration and reduce the learning curve – lowering the barrier to entry for junior or less skilled analysts.  

However, to bridge the immediate expertise gap in managing AI tools, organizations can consider expert managed services that take the day-to-day management out of the SOC’s hands, allowing them to focus on training and proactive initiatives.

Conclusion

Experts predict the cybersecurity skills gap will continue to grow, increasing operational and financial risks for organizations. AI for cybersecurity is crucial for CISOs to augment their teams and scale defense capabilities with speed, scalability, and predictive insights, while human expertise remains vital for providing the intuition and problem-solving needed for responsible and efficient AI integration.

If you’re thinking about implementing AI to solve your own cyber skills gap, consider the following:

  • Select an AI cybersecurity solution tailored to your specific business needs
  • Review and streamline existing workflows and tools – consider a platform-based approach to eliminate inefficiencies
  • Make use of managed services to outsource AI expertise
  • Upskill and reskill existing talent through training and education
  • Foster a knowledge-sharing culture with access to knowledge bases and collaboration tools

Interested in how AI could augment your SOC to increase efficiency and save resources? Read our longer CISO’s Guide to Navigating the Cybersecurity Skills Shortage.

And to better understand cybersecurity practitioners' attitudes towards AI, check out Darktrace’s State of AI Cybersecurity 2024 report.

References

  1. https://www.isc2.org/research  
  2. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/education/it-and-tech/cybersecurity-statistics/  
  3. https://www.informationweek.com/cyber-resilience/the-psychology-of-cybersecurity-burnout  
  4. https://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/1KZ3XE9D  
  5. https://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/1KZ3XE9D  
  6. https://darktrace.com/resources/state-of-ai-cyber-security-2024
Inside the SOC
Darktrace cyber analysts are world-class experts in threat intelligence, threat hunting and incident response, and provide 24/7 SOC support to thousands of Darktrace customers around the globe. Inside the SOC is exclusively authored by these experts, providing analysis of cyber incidents and threat trends, based on real-world experience in the field.
Written by
The Darktrace Community

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June 18, 2025

Darktrace Collaborates with Microsoft: Unifying Email Security with a Shared Vision

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In today’s threat landscape, email remains the most targeted vector for cyberattacks. Organizations require not only multi-layered defenses but also advanced, integrated systems that work collaboratively to proactively mitigate threats before they cause damage

That’s why we’re proud to announce a new integration between Darktrace / EMAIL and Microsoft Defender for Office 365, delivering a Unified Quarantine experience that empowers security teams with seamless visibility, control, and response across both platforms.

This announcement builds on a strong and growing collaboration. In 2024, Darktrace was honored as Microsoft UK Partner of the Year and recognized as a Security Trailblazer at the annual Microsoft Security 20/20 Awards, a testament to our shared commitment to innovation and customer-centric security.

A Shared Mission: Stopping Threats at Machine Speed

This integration is more than a technical milestone,as it’s a reflection of a shared mission: to protect organizations from both known and unknown threats, with efficiency, accuracy, and transparency.

  • Microsoft Defender for Office 365 delivers a comprehensive security framework that safeguards Microsoft 365 email and collaboration workloads leveraging advanced AI, global threat intelligence and information on known attack infrastructure.
  • Darktrace / EMAIL complements this with Self-Learning AI that understands the unique communication patterns within each organization, detecting subtle anomalies that evade traditional detection methods.

Together, we’re delivering multi-layered, adaptive protection that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

“Our integration with Microsoft gives security teams the tools they need to act faster and more precisely to detect and respond to threats,” said Jill Popelka, CEO of Darktrace. “Together, we’re strengthening defenses where it matters most to our customers: at the inbox.”

Unified Quarantine: One View, Total Clarity

The new Unified Quarantine experience gives customers a single pane of glass to view and manage email threatsregardless of which product took action. This means:

  • Faster investigations with consolidated visibility
  • Clear attribution of actions and outcomes across both platforms
  • Streamlined workflows for security teams managing complex environments

“This integration is a testament to the power of combining Microsoft’s global threat intelligence with Darktrace’s unique ability to understand the ‘self’ of an organization,” said Jack Stockdale, CTO of Darktrace. “Together, we’re delivering a new standard in proactive, adaptive email security.”

A New Era of Collaborative Cyber Defense

This collaboration represents a broader shift in cybersecurity: from siloed tools to integrated ecosystems. As attackers become more sophisticated, defenders must move faster, smarter, and in unison.

Through this integration, Darktrace and Microsoft establish a new standard for collaboration between native and third-party security solutions, enhancing not only threat detection but also comprehensive understanding and proactive measures against threats.

We’re excited to bring this innovation to our customers and continue building a future where AI and human expertise collaborate to secure the enterprise.

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Carlos Gray
Senior Product Marketing Manager, Email

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June 19, 2025

Customer Case Study: Leading Petrochemical Manufacturer

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Headquartered in Saudi Arabia, this industry leading petrochemical manufacturer serves customers in more than 80 countries across diverse markets throughout Europe, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, China, and Southeast Asia.

Cyber resiliency critical to growth strategy

This leading petrochemical manufacturer’s vision is to be one of the major global players in the production and marketing of designated petrochemicals and downstream products. The company aims to significantly increase its capacity to up to a million metric tons within the next few years.

With cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure increasing 30% globally last year, cyber resiliency is essential to supporting the company’s strategic business goals of:

  • Maximizing production through efficient asset utilization
  • Maximizing sales by conducting 90% of its business outside Saudi Arabia
  • Optimizing resources and processes by integrating with UN Global Compact principles for sustainability and efficiency
  • Growing its business portfolio by engaging in joint ventures to diversify production and add value to the economy

However, the industry leader faced several challenges in its drive to fortify its cybersecurity defenses.

Visibility gaps delay response time

The company’s existing security setup provided limited visibility to the in-house security team, hindering its ability to detect anomalous network and user activity in real time. This resulted in delayed responses to potential incidents, making proactive issue resolution difficult and any remediation in the event of a successful attack costly and time-consuming.

Manual detection drains resources

Without automated detection and response capabilities, the organization’s security team had to manually monitor for suspicious activity – a time-consuming and inefficient approach that strained resources and left the organization vulnerable. This made it difficult for the team to stay current with training or acquire new skills and certifications, which are core to the ethos of both the company’s owners and the team itself.

Cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure increasing

The petrochemical manufacturer is part of a broader ecosystem of companies, making the protection of its supply chain – both upstream and downstream – critical. With several manufacturing entities and multiple locations, the customer’s internal structure is complex and challenging to secure. As cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure escalate, it needed a more comprehensive approach to safeguard its business and the wider ecosystem.

Keeping and growing skills and focus in-house

To strengthen its cybersecurity strategy, the company considered two options:

  1. Make a significant initial and ongoing investment in a Security Operations Center (SOC), which would involve skills development outside the company and substantial management overhead.
  2. Use a combination of new, automated tools and an outsourced Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service to reduce the burden on internal security specialists and allow the company to invest in upskilling its staff so they can focus on more strategic tasks.

Faced with this choice between entirely outsourcing security and augmenting the security team with new capabilities, the customer chose the second option, selecting Darktrace to automate the company’s monitoring, detection, and response. Today, the petrochemical manufacturer is using:

Extending the SOC with 24/7 expert support

To alleviate the burden on its lean security team, the company augmented its in-house capabilities with Darktrace’s Managed Detection & Response service. This support acts as an extension of its SOC, providing 24/7 monitoring, investigation, and escalation of high-priority threats. With Darktrace’s global SOC managing alert triage and autonomously containing threats, the organization’s internal team can focus on strategic initiatives. The result is a stronger security posture and increased capacity to proactively address evolving cyber risks – without expanding headcount or sacrificing visibility.

A unique approach to AI

In its search for a new security platform, the company’s Director of Information Technology said Darktrace’s autonomous response capability, coupled with Self-Learning AI-driven threat reduction, were two big reasons for selecting Darktrace over competing products and services.

AI was a huge factor – no one else was doing what Darktrace was doing with [AI].”

Demonstrated visibility

Before Darktrace, the customer had no visibility into the network activity to and from remote worker devices. Some employees need the ability to connect to its networks at any time and from any location, including the Director of Information Technology. The trial deployment of Darktrace / ENDPOINT was a success and gave the team peace of mind that, no matter the location or device, high-value remote workers were protected by Darktrace.

Modular architecture  

Darktrace's modular architecture allowed the company to deploy security controls across its complex, multi-entity environment. The company’s different locations run on segregated networks but are still interconnected and need to be protected. Darktrace / NETWORK provides a unified view and coordinated security response across the organization’s entire network infrastructure, including endpoint devices.

Results

The petrochemical manufacturer is using Darktrace across all of its locations and has achieved total visibility across network and user activity. “Darktrace is increasing in value every day,” said the Director of Information Technology.

I don’t have a big team, and Darktrace makes our lives very, very easy, not least the automation of some of the tasks that require constant manual review.”

Time savings frees analysts to focus on proactive security

Darktrace / NETWORK provides continuous, AI-driven monitoring and analysis of the company’s network activity, user behavior, and threat patterns, establishing a baseline of what normal activity looks like, and then alerting analysts to any deviations from normal traffic, activity, and behaviors. Darktrace’s autonomous response capabilities speed up response to detected threats, meaning intervention from the security team is required for fewer incidents and alerts.

In October 2024 alone, Darktrace Cyber AI Analyst saved the team 810 investigation hours, and autonomously responded to 180 anomalous behaviors that were uncovered during the investigations. With Darktrace managing the majority of threat detection and response efforts, the security team has been able to change its day-to-day activity from manual review of traffic and alerts and belated response to activity, to proactively fortifying its detection and response posture and upskilling to meet evolving requirements.  

Layered email protection reduces phishing threats

The company’s email infrastructure posed a challenge due to petrochemical industry regulations requiring on-premises email servers, with some security delivered via Microsoft Azure. By integrating Darktrace / EMAIL into the Azure stack, the organization has reduced the volume of phishing emails its users receive by 5%.

“Now we have one more layer of security related to email – every email goes through two filters. If something is not being caught or traced by Azure, it is being detected by Darktrace,” said the Director of Information Technology. “As a result, we’re now seeing only about 15% to 20% of the phishing emails we used to receive before implementing Darktrace.”

Preparing for a secure future

The time saved using Darktrace has helped the security team take proactive steps, including preparing for new cyber resilience regulations for Saudi Arabia’s Critical National Infrastructure, as mandated by the National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA).

“The team now has ample time to prepare policies and procedures that meet the new NCA regulations and, in some cases, enhance the requirements of the new law,” said the Director of Information Technology. “All of this is possible because they don’t need to keep watch; Darktrace takes on so much of that task for them.”

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