Hidden layers boost AI security, Zighra CEO says

The best security measures are the ones you don’t see, Deepak Dutt believes.

Mr. Dutt is the co-founder and CEO of Zighra, a provider of AI-powered continuous authentication and fraud detection services which incorporate several different security layers to protect devices.

[caption id="attachment_69650" align="alignleft" width="195"]The solution was in blending the best of several different methods, a tactic needed in order to stay ahead of criminals who are developing their own methods to remain profitable.

Those methods include mobile farms where armies of actual humans are sitting at desks to mount essentially what are human bot attacks. Then there are AI-augmented bots that are becoming more human-like every day.

Zighra’s recipe includes identifying each user’s idiosyncrasies. They determine common locations and social links and combine it all together.

“The more layers you have the stronger that model is,” Mr. Dutt explained.

Biometrics have their place, but not as the sole line of defence, Mr. Dutt believes, saying anything static can be compromised. Apple eschewed static methods in favour of a blend including AI and deep learning to produce a much stronger tool, he added.

While the amount of data humans generate is indeed an opportunity, plenty of work has to be done to properly capitalize on it, Mr. Dutt said. Limit exposure to personally identifiable information (PII). Take non PII and look for correlations that can help everyone.

In the future our personal devices will have more AI capability, which can both help and hurt, Mr. Dutt said. On the negative side, AI will produce bots that are more and more human.

This has implications for the internet of things and device authentication. Mr. Dutt said Zighra is aligning itself with sensor-based devices including wearables and connected cars, which should be able to determine it s driving it our wearing it by how we walk and breathe, what we do, how fast we do it and where we go while doing it.

As seamless and unintrusive as possible if you want mass adoption.

“At the end of the day users don’t want to have all of this friction involved in authenticating devices,” Mr. Dutt said.

Zighra recently launched SensifyID as a behavioural biometric solution. Whether it be knowing it’s you driving the car, unlocking the door of your home or even approaching your ATM, SensifyID will address authentication without you having to.

“It’s all subconscious so if we can create a model based on that on a specific device that has no static information, that’s the best way,” Mr. Dutt said.

“The user only needs to get involved when behaviours are different or when anomalies are spotted so they can take appropriate action.”