Oracle bets big on ‘autonomous offering’ for security as cyber criminals embrace AI, ML

With cybercriminals using smarter and modern tools such as AI and ML to attack enterprises around the world, Oracle is betting big on its 'autonomous offering' where security is embedded by default. While focused on fully automating the database, Oracle says its tool helps eliminate manual errors in database tuning, security, backups, and updates.

"We're talking about a database where security is already there by default. It's encrypted by default and critical patch sets are released in real-time without bringing down the system. In order to thwart attack from hackers, we're making sure we provide this autonomous offering. Specially because we're a database company and all the critical systems runon our database. Therefore, it's our responsibility that when customers are using it, security is not a choice, it should be embedded by default," said Akshay Aggarwal, Director-Cloud Platform, Oracle India, in an interview to Hindustan Times.

According to a 2018 Cisco report, cyber-attacks in India have caused financial vandalism of about $500,000. Another report by Thales claims that about 52% businesses in India reported a data breach in 2017, much higher than the global average of 36%. The trend has compelled enterprises to increase spending on security. Research firm IDC predicts global spending on security (including hardware, software, and services) will hit compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.2% between 2018 and 2022, to a total of $133.8 billion in 2022.

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Aggarwal added that the spending on security is expected to grow in the near future as more businesses are moving to the cloud. The businesses are cautious, though.

"They [businesses] are making sure whatever runs in the cloud is secure… because the moment anything goes wrong, it immediately becomes a liability. So, when they move to the public cloud, they are making sure that the right security controls are put in place. And hence, you know, spending will also grow quite fast," he said.

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Aggarwal also pointed out that cybercriminals are using modern technology such as AI-driven bots to conduct cyber attacks. Interestingly enough, tech firms are also investing in bots to secure their companies, he added.

"We've something called 'Web Application Firewall'. This tool uses AI and ML to secure itself. We are able to provide security on the go. We've seen businesses experience a lot of cyber attacks, some what we call as bot attacks. Hackers try to hack it either manually or by using the bots. These bots are also powered by AI and ML. So, against these bot attacks,human intervention alone will not suffice. That's why we have special feature sets powered by advanced AI/ML, helping customers distinguish between good bots and bad bots. Because, if it is a good bot, you want the traffic to come. If it is a bad bot, you don't want that traffic. We can whitelist and blacklist bots, accordingly," he concluded.

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