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April 28, 2021

How AI Email Security Benefits Human Defenders

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28
Apr 2021
Learn how autonomous AI frees up IT teams and allows them to focus on what matters. Say goodbye to weighed-down teams and lengthy security processes.

At the heart of any email attack is the goal of moving the recipient to engage: whether that’s clicking a link, filling in a form, or opening an attachment. And with over nine in ten cyber-attacks starting with an email, this attack vector continues to prove successful, despite organizations’ best efforts to safeguard their workforce by deploying email gateways and training employees to spot phishing attempts.

Email attackers have seen such success because they understand their victims. They know that, ultimately, human beings are creatures of habit, prone to error, and susceptible to their emotions. Years of experience has allowed attackers to fine tune their emails making them more plausible and more provocative. Automated tools are now increasing the speed and scale at which criminals can buy new domains and send emails en masse. This makes it even easier to ‘A/B test’ attack methods: abandoning those that don’t see high success rates and capitalizing on those that do.

We can classify phishing attempts into five broad categories, each aiming to trigger a different emotional reaction and elicit a response.

  • Fear: “We have detected a virus on your device, log in to your McAfee account.”
  • Curiosity: “You have 3 new voicemails, click here.”
  • Generosity: “COVID-19 has greatly impacted homelessness in your area. Donate now.”
  • Greed: “Only 23 iPhones left to give away, act now!”
  • Concern: “Coronavirus outbreak in your area: Find out more.”

It’s worth noting that today’s increasingly dynamic workforces are more susceptible to these techniques, isolated in their homes and hungry for new information.

Turning to tech

As email attacks continue to trick employees and find success, many organizations have realized that the built-in security tools that come with their email provider aren’t enough to defend against today’s attacks. Additional email gateways are successful in catching spam and other low-hanging fruit, but fail to stop advanced attacks – particularly those leveraging novel malware, new domains, or advanced techniques. These advanced attacks are also the most damaging to businesses.

This failure is due to an inherent weakness in the legacy approach of traditional security tools. They compare inbound mail against lists of ‘known bad’ IPs, domains, and file hashes. Senders and recipients are treated simply as data points – ignoring the nuances of the human beings behind the keyboards.

Looking at these metrics in isolation fails to take into account the full context that can only be gained by understanding the people behind email interactions: where they usually log in from, who they communicate with, how they write, and what types of attachments they send and receive. It is this rich, personal context that reveals seemingly benign emails to be unmistakably malicious, especially when other data fails to reveal the danger.

Misunderstanding the human

Frustrated with the ineffectiveness of traditional tools, many organizations think that the solution is to minimize the chances that employees engage with malicious emails through comprehensive employee training. Indeed, companies often attempt to train their employees to spot malicious emails to compensate for their technology’s lack of detection.

Considering humans to be the last line of defense is dangerous, and this approach overlooks the fact that today’s sophisticated fakes can appear indistinguishable to legitimate mails. It's only when you really break an email down beyond the text, beyond the personal name, beyond the domain and email address (in the case of compromised trusted senders), that you can decipher between real and fake.

Large data breaches of recent years have given attackers greater access than ever to corporate emails and stolen passwords, and so supply chain attacks are becoming increasingly common. When attackers take over a trusted account or an existing email thread, how can an employee be expected to notice a subtle change in wording or the different type of attached document? However rigorous the internal training program and regardless of how vigilant employees are, we are now at the point where humans cannot spot these very subtle indicators. And one click is all it takes.

Understanding the human

Email security, for a long time, remains an unsolved piece of the complex cyber security puzzle. The failure of both traditional tools and employee training has prompted organizations to take a radically different approach. Thousands of businesses across the world, in both the public and private sector, use artificial intelligence that understands the human behind the keyboard and forms a nuanced and continually evolving understanding of email interactions across the business.

By learning what a human does, who they interact with, how they write, and the substance of a typical conversation between any two or more people, AI begins to understand the habits of employees, and over time it builds a comprehensive picture of their normal patterns of behavior. Most importantly, AI is self-learning, continuously revising its understanding of ‘normal’ so that when employees’ habits change, so does the AI’s understanding.

This enables the technology to detect behavioral anomalies that fall outside of an employee’s ‘pattern of life’, or the pattern of life for the organization as a whole.

This fundamentally new approach to email security enables the system to recognize the subtle indicators of a threat and make accurate decisions to stop or allow emails to pass through, even if a threat has never been seen before.

Sitting behind email gateways, this self-learning technology has extremely high catch rates. It has caught countless malicious emails that other tools missed, from impersonations of senior financial personnel to ‘fearware’ that played on the workforce’s uncertainties at a time of pandemic.

Attackers are continuing to innovate, and automation has led to a new wave of email threats. 88% of security leaders now believe that cyber-attacks powered by offensive AI are inevitable. The email threat landscape is rapidly changing, and we can expect to receive more hoax emails that are more convincing. Now is a crucial moment for organizations to prepare for this eventuality by adopting AI in their email defenses.

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.
Author
Dan Fein
VP, Product

Based in New York, Dan joined Darktrace’s technical team in 2015, helping customers quickly achieve a complete and granular understanding of Darktrace’s product suite. Dan has a particular focus on Darktrace/Email, ensuring that it is effectively deployed in complex digital environments, and works closely with the development, marketing, sales, and technical teams. Dan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from New York University.

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March 28, 2025

Darktrace Recognized as the Only Visionary in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for CPS Protection Platforms

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We are thrilled to announce that Darktrace has been named the only Visionary in the inaugural Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) Protection Platforms. We feel This recognition highlights Darktrace’s AI-driven approach to securing industrial environments, where conventional security solutions struggle to keep pace with increasing cyber threats.

A milestone for CPS security

It's our opinion that the first-ever Gartner Magic Quadrant for CPS Protection Platforms reflects a growing industry shift toward purpose-built security solutions for critical infrastructure. As organizations integrate IT, OT, and cloud-connected systems, the cyber risk landscape continues to expand. Gartner evaluated 17 vendors based on their Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision, establishing a benchmark for security leaders looking to enhance cyber resilience in industrial environments.

We believe the Gartner recognition of Darktrace as the only Visionary reaffirms the platform’s ability to proactively defend against cyber risks through AI-driven anomaly detection, autonomous response, and risk-based security strategies. With increasingly sophisticated attacks targeting industrial control systems, organizations need a solution that continuously evolves to defend against both known and unknown threats.

AI-driven security for CPS environments

Securing CPS environments requires an approach that adapts to the dynamic nature of industrial operations. Traditional security tools rely on static signatures and predefined rules, leaving gaps in protection against novel and sophisticated threats. Darktrace / OT takes a different approach, leveraging Self-Learning AI to detect and neutralize threats in real time, even in air-gapped or highly regulated environments.

Darktrace / OT continuously analyzes network behaviors to establish a deep understanding of what is “normal” for each industrial environment. This enables it to autonomously identify deviations that signal potential cyber threats, providing early warning and proactive defense before attacks can disrupt operations. Unlike rule-based security models that require constant manual updates, Darktrace / OT improves with the environment, ensuring long-term resilience against emerging cyber risks.

Bridging the IT-OT security gap

A major challenge for organizations protecting CPS environments is the disconnect between IT and OT security. While IT security has traditionally focused on data

protection and compliance, OT security is driven by operational uptime and safety, leading to siloed security programs that leave critical gaps in visibility and response.

Darktrace / OT eliminates these silos by providing unified visibility across IT, OT, and IoT assets, ensuring that security teams have a complete picture of their attack surface. Its AI-driven approach enables cross-domain threat detection, recognizing risks that move laterally between IT and OT environments. By seamlessly integrating with existing security architectures, Darktrace / OT helps organizations close security gaps without disrupting industrial processes.

Proactive OT risk management and resilience

Beyond detection and response, Darktrace / OT strengthens organizations’ ability to manage cyber risk proactively. By mapping vulnerabilities to real-world attack paths, it prioritizes remediation actions based on actual exploitability and business impact, rather than relying on isolated CVE scores. This risk-based approach enables security teams to focus resources where they matter most, reducing overall exposure to cyber threats.

With autonomous threat response capabilities, Darktrace / OT not only identifies risks but also contains them in real time, preventing attackers from escalating intrusions. Whether mitigating ransomware, insider threats, or sophisticated nation-state attacks, Darktrace / OT ensures that industrial environments remain secure, operational, and resilient, no matter how threats evolve.

AI-powered incident response and SOC automation

Security teams are facing an overwhelming volume of alerts, making it difficult to prioritize threats and respond effectively. Darktrace / OT’s Cyber AI Analyst acts as a force multiplier for security teams by automating threat investigation, alert triage, and response actions. By mimicking the workflow of a human SOC analyst, Cyber AI Analyst provides contextual insights that accelerate incident response and reduce the manual workload on security teams.

With 24/7 autonomous monitoring, Darktrace / OT ensures that threats are continuously detected and investigated in real time. Whether facing ransomware, insider threats, or sophisticated nation-state attacks, organizations can rely on AI-driven security to contain threats before they disrupt operations.

Trusted by customers: Darktrace / OT recognized in Gartner Peer Insights

Source: Gartner Peer Insights (Oct 28th)

Beyond our recognition in the Gartner Magic Quadrant, we feel Darktrace / OT is one of the highest-rated CPS security solutions on Gartner Peer Insights, reflecting strong customer trust and validation. With a 4.9/5 overall rating and the highest "Willingness to Recommend" score among CPS vendors, organizations across critical infrastructure and industrial sectors recognize the impact of our AI-driven security approach. Source: Gartner Peer Insights (Oct 28th)

This strong customer endorsement underscores why leading enterprises trust Darktrace / OT to secure their CPS environments today and in the future.

Redefining the future of CPS security

It's our view that Darktrace’s recognition as the only Visionary in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for CPS Protection Platforms validates its leadership in next-generation industrial security. As cyber threats targeting critical infrastructure continue to rise, organizations must adopt AI-driven security solutions that can adapt, respond, and mitigate risks in real time.

We believe this recognition reinforces our commitment to innovation and our mission to secure the world’s most essential systems. This recognition reinforces our commitment to innovation and our mission to secure the world’s most essential systems.

® Download the full Gartner Magic Quadrant for CPS Protection Platforms

® Request a demo to see Darktrace OT in action.

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for CPS Protection Platforms , Katell Thielemann, Wam Voster, Ruggero Contu 12 February 2025

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner and Magic Quadrant and Peer Insights are a registered trademark, of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner Peer Insights content consists of the opinions of individual end users based on their own experiences with the vendors listed on the platform, should not be construed as statements of fact, nor do they represent the views of Gartner or its affiliates. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in this content nor makes any warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this content, about its accuracy or completeness, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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About the author
Pallavi Singh
Product Marketing Manager, OT Security & Compliance

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March 28, 2025

Survey Findings: AI Cybersecurity Priorities and Objectives in 2025

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AI is changing the cybersecurity field, both on the offensive and defensive sides. We surveyed over 1,500 cybersecurity professionals from around the world to uncover their attitudes, understanding, and priorities when it comes to AI cybersecurity in 2025. Our full report, unearthing some telling trends, is available now.  

Download the full report to explore these findings in depth

It is clear that security professionals know their field is changing fast, and that AI will continue to influence those changes. Our survey results show that they are aware that the rise of AI will require them to adopt new tools and learn to use them effectively. Still, they aren’t always certain about how to plan for the future, or what to invest in.

The top priorities of security stakeholders for improving their defenses against AI-powered threats include augmenting their existing tool stacks with AI-powered solutions and improving integration among their security tools.

Figure 1: Year-over-year changes to the priorities of securitystakeholders.

Increasing cybersecurity staff

As was also the case last year, security stakeholders are less interested in hiring additional staff than in adding new AI-powered tools onto their existing security stacks, with only with 11% (and only 8% of executives) planning to increase cybersecurity staff in 2025.

This suggests that leaders are looking for new methods to overcome talent resource shortages.

Adding AI-powered security tools to supplement existing solutions

Executives are particularly enthusiastic about adopting AI-driven tools. Within that goal, there is consensus about the qualities cyber professionals are looking for when purchasing new security capabilities or replacing existing products.

  • 87% of survey respondents prefer solutions that are part of a broader platform over individual point products

These results are similar to last year’s, where again, almost nine out of ten agreed that a platform-oriented security solution was more effective at stopping cyber threats than a collection of individual products.

  • 88% of survey respondents agree that the use of AI within the security stack is critical to freeing up time for security teams to become more proactive, compared to reactive

AI itself can contribute to this shift from reactive to proactive security, improving risk prioritization and automating preventative strategies like Attack Surface Management (ASM) and proactive exposure management.

  • 84% of survey respondents prefer defensive AI solutions that do not require the organization’s data to be shared externally

This preference may reflect increasing attention to the data privacy and security risks posed by generative AI (gen AI) adoption. It may also reflect growing awareness of data residency requirements and other restrictions that regulators are imposing.

Improving cybersecurity awareness training for end users

Based on the survey results, practitioners in SecOps are more interested in improving security awareness training.

This goal is not necessarily mutually exclusive from the addition of AI tools. For example, teams can leverage AI to build more effective security awareness training programs, and as gen AI tools are adopted, users will need to be taught about data privacy and associated security risks.

Looking towards the future

One conclusion we can draw from the attitudinal shifts from last year’s survey to this year’s: while hiring more security staff might be a nice-to-have, implementing AI-powered tools so that existing employees can work smarter is increasingly viewed as a must-have.

However, trending goals are not just about managing resources, whether headcount or AI investments, to keep up with workloads. Existing end users must also be trained to follow safe practices while using established and newly adopted tools.

Security professionals, including executives, SecOps, and every role in between, continue to shift their identified challenges and priorities as they gear up for the coming year in the Era of AI.

State of AI report

Download the full report to explore these findings in depth

The full report for Darktrace’s State of AI Cybersecurity is out now. Download the paper to dig deeper into these trends, and see how results differ by industry, region, organization size, and job title.  

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