- Over four million cybersecurity jobs remain unfilled globally, a number expected to balloon to 85 million by 2029
- Intezer, an AI-driven cybersecurity startup, has secured $33 million in Series C funding led by Norwest Venture Partners, bringing total funding to $60 million
- Intezer’s platform aims to automate the triage and investigation of security alerts, reducing investigation time from hours to minutes
The cybersecurity industry faces one of the most significant labour shortages in the tech world, with more than 4 million job vacancies globally.
According to the World Economic Forum, as cyber threats evolve, this talent gap will surge to an alarming 85 million unfilled positions in the next five years.
In the midst of this critical challenge, companies like Intezer are stepping up with AI-driven solutions to bridge the gap. The startup, co-founded by Itai Tevet, an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) cybersecurity veteran, has just raised $33 million in Series C funding.
Led by Norwest Venture Partners and backed by existing investors such as Intel Capital and CyberArk's co-founder Alon Cohen, the funding aims to expand Intezer’s operations and enhance its innovative technology that addresses the rising volume of cybersecurity threats.
The challenge: Too many alerts, too few hands
As malicious attacks grow more sophisticated, the tools designed to detect threats generate an overwhelming number of alerts, between 4,000 and 11,000 per day for large organisations. However, sorting through these alerts to identify real threats is a massive burden for security teams. Each alert can take hours of investigation, often yielding false positives that consume time and resources.
This operational bottleneck slows the response time and increases the risk of real threats being overlooked. The cybersecurity shortage compounds the issue, leaving companies with too few professionals to keep up with the job demands.
Intezer’s Solution: AI-powered triaging and investigation
Intezer has developed an AI-based platform that aims to solve this problem. Their solution automates both the triaging and investigation of cybersecurity alerts.
While it may take human hours to review a single alert, Intezer’s AI can analyse an alert in just two minutes, identifying whether it’s a minor issue or a significant breach. This allows security teams to focus on the most critical threats without being bogged down by an endless stream of false positives.
The technology’s backbone lies in Intezer’s pioneering work mapping the "genome" of cybersecurity threats, a process akin to creating a DNA-style map that tracks different types of malware, their origins, and behaviours.
This genome-based approach helps the platform quickly identify patterns and anomalies, enabling faster detection of sophisticated attacks like WannaCry or new threats like the HiddenWasp malware linked to Linux systems.
AI's growing role in cybersecurity
Intezer is also leveraging AI tools like OpenAI APIs to improve its platform further. For instance, it can analyse natural language text from internal communications and feed this information into its system to detect possible security flags.
This approach increases the platform’s ability to quickly sift through vast amounts of data, further optimising its ability to differentiate between low-risk and high-risk alerts.
With about 4% of an organisation’s alerts typically requiring escalation, the key challenge for any cybersecurity team is determining which 4% are crucial. Intezer’s AI is designed to help answer that question with greater accuracy.
Growing competition and prospects
Competition is heating up as more companies recognise the need for advanced cybersecurity solutions. Major players like Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, and Wiz have invested significantly in similar tools. Intezer’s partnerships with these firms have fueled its growth, but they also place the company at a crossroads. Will it continue to go alone or eventually become part of a larger consolidation within the cybersecurity industry?
Intezer remains focused on expanding its footprint and refining its technology. Companies will increasingly turn to automated solutions like Intezer’s to fill the gap as the cybersecurity labour shortage grows.
With the global cybersecurity talent gap expected to grow even larger in the coming years, innovative AI solutions like Intezer are poised to be crucial in keeping networks secure.
As Itai Tevet and his team continue to build their platform, their AI-driven approach to threat detection could help reduce the burden on overworked security teams while improving the speed and accuracy of threat response.
The company’s recent $33 million funding round will allow them to scale these solutions to meet the ever-growing demand for cybersecurity expertise.
Cybersecurity, data science, machine learning, 7 other tech skills to learn in 2024
Meanwhile, in an earlier report, TheRadar compiled the top 10 tech skills to acquire in 2024 to stay relevant in the labour market. Knowing and utilising these tech skills gives one an edge over others, especially in this age with a high unemployment rate.
These skills, among others, include cybersecurity, data science and data analysis, and artificial and machine learning.