Darktrace, the leader in Enterprise Immune System technology, has today announced that the International Baccalaureate (IB), a global educational organisation, has deployed its self-learning technology into the heart of its network. Darktrace now safeguards sensitive student information on the IB’s network, defending it against novel threats, otherwise missed by traditional security tools.

Darktrace’s Enterprise Immune System delivers on the promise of artificial intelligence (AI) in cyber security,” commented Richard Jenkins, Head of Information Risk Management, Cyber Security and Governance, at the IB. “Deployed in under an hour, the AI platform started learning about our network instantaneously and impressed us with its ability to detect the early signs of emerging threats, or dormant vulnerabilities, that our other tools have no way of catching.”

The International Baccalaureate is a non-profit educational organisation motivated by a mission to create a better world through education. Its four highly respected programmes of international education aim to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people. Founded in 1968, the IB currently works with over 4,700 schools in 155 countries.

The IB’s network houses highly sensitive information, including academic grades and medical data of over a million individuals. With five centres globally and a high number of third party vendors and temporary contractors, the IB was concerned that its existing defences would struggle to spot subtle and stealthy attacks on its increasingly complex network.

Leveraging advancements in machine learning and probabilistic mathematics, the Enterprise Immune System self-learns the ‘pattern of life’ of every user and device on the IB network, providing the cyber security team with a bird’s-eye view of all lateral movements. The AI algorithms automatically detect emerging attacks, allowing security personnel to mitigate genuine threats before they escalate.

It is promising to see non-profit organisations like the IB taking the lead in fighting back against novel attacks with cutting-edge AI,” said Sanjay Aurora, Managing Director for Asia Pacific at Darktrace. “In this new era of threat, human security teams are becoming overwhelmed by sophisticated, pernicious attacks. Rules-based defences will inevitably fail in the face of fast-evolving threats. While there is no silver bullet for cyber security, the IB’s move to Darktrace’s AI gives them an edge in this fierce cyber arms race.”