By Mark Runyon – Malware and phishing attacks are growing more sophisticated. Malware authors are constantly producing new variations, ditching their old virus signatures to evade detection. It is the ultimate game of whack-a-mole as security professionals chase these ever-changing virus blueprints.

Machine learning can help. By consuming the historical catalog of all known malware in the wild, it can pinpoint familiar behavioral patterns such as common file sizes, what is stored in those files, and string patterns tucked within the code. By identifying these fingerprints, new viruses, or variants of existing ones, can be shut down in real time.

Using AI, phishing attacks are becoming akin to finely tuned marketing emails. Perpetrators can mine the web to find out not only your name and email address but also where you work, your interests, and the names of your trusted friends and co-workers. This could always be done manually, but AI enables hackers to build these customized profiles at scale.

In addition to tailoring email content to specific subjects and people, hackers can analyze email responses to see what wording triggers greater click-throughs as it continually learns how to craft the perfect phishing hook. Read On: