Darktrace, the world leader in AI technology for cyber defense, has today announced that total contract value in South Africa has increased exponentially since its first customer in the region, major regional airline Airlink, deployed Darktrace’s AI cyber defense technology in May 2016. Leading law firm, Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, management group, Massmart, and popular retailer, Lewis Group, are among the organizations in South Africa that have recently chosen Darktrace’s Enterprise Immune System to defend their networks against pernicious cyber-threats.

Darktrace is leading the way in empowering organizations to defend their networks against threats from within,” said Ralph Hopkins, Head of IT, Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr. “While there is no silver bullet to the challenge of cyber security, the future belongs to machine learning and AI. Darktrace’s Enterprise Immune System impressed us with its ability to self-learn our network and apply that self-acquired knowledge to detect threats as and when they emerge.”

Darktrace’s disruptive cyber security technology leverages advances in machine learning and probabilistic mathematics to mimic the self-learning intelligence of the human immune system. The artificial intelligence algorithms are able to detect and autonomously respond to emerging cyber-attacks and other threatening anomalies, while also enabling real-time visualization of all network traffic. Proven across over 3,000 deployments world-wide, the Enterprise Immune System has detected over 48,000 serious in-progress attacks across 70 countries.

The Enterprise Immune System has transformed our cyber security strategy,” said Peter Alberts, Executive ICT shared services, Massmart. “The reality is that in today’s threat landscape, it is a matter of when, not if, a threat gets inside the network. Now, we can be confident that we will be alerted to emerging attacks in real time, before they have inflicted damage.”

We are thrilled that so many companies in South Africa are deploying the Enterprise Immune System,” said Nick Trim, Managing Director, EMEA, Darktrace. “The threat has evolved. It’s now too stealthy and fast-moving for human security teams alone to be able to successfully fight against it. Darktrace’s AI technology is uniquely capable of autonomously fighting back against in-progress cyber-threats, buying the security team precious time to catch up.”