Darktrace, the world’s leading AI company for cyber defense, has today announced that Heritage Education Funds has deployed the Enterprise Immune System to detect and stop sophisticated cyber-attacks against its network. Heritage joins the growing number of Canadian organizations, including TRJ Telecom, Energy+, Pizza Pizza, and DynaLIFE, that use Darktrace’s proven AI to dramatically boost their cyber resilience.

With over $2.65 billion in assets and 50 years’ experience, Heritage Education Funds is a leading  Registered Education Saving Plan (RESP) provider, enabling families across Canada to save money for their children’s university education. The organization not only advises its members on investments, but also applies for federal and provincial grants on their behalf. Heritage’s network holds the sensitive personal and financial information of over 450,000 Canadian citizens, making proactive cyber defense a top priority for the Fund.

Upholding our customers’ trust is of paramount importance,” said Doug Topalovic, Vice President of IT, Heritage Education Funds. “With the increasing prevalence of novel and stealthy attacks, we recognized that traditional tools that are rigidly programmed to spot only known vulnerabilities and malicious behaviors are no longer sufficient. Darktrace’s AI is the future of cyber security, enabling us to detect and respond to threats before they can do damage.”

Powered by machine learning and AI algorithms, Darktrace learns the ‘pattern of life’ for every device and user on a network and uses this continually evolving understanding of ‘normal’ to detect new anomalous activity as it emerges. This unprecedented early threat detection enables organizations to identify in-progress attacks before they can do damage. Darktrace’s AI can also autonomously stop in-progress cyber-attacks by generating a precise, proportionate response akin to the generation of digital antibodies.

Headlines announcing yet another major cyber breach have become so common that it is easy to think of this as the new normal,” said David Masson, Country Manager, Canada, Darktrace. “Yet by employing technology that can detect threats as they emerge and autonomously take action against them in real time, organizations are regaining back the advantage over attackers. Darktrace’s AI enables organizations to secure their networks and defend their customers’ data from the threats of today and tomorrow.”