Darktrace launches 'major upgrade' to email offering

Cyber security firm Darktrace has launched a "major upgrade" to its email offering as part of an effort to protect clients from an "evolving cyber threat landscape".

Darktrace said on Monday that Darktrace/Email's new capabilities include an AI-employee feedback loop, account takeover protection, insights from endpoint, network and cloud, and behavioural detections of misdirected emails.

The FTSE 250-listed firm said its Darktrace/Email product can detect novel email attacks 13 days earlier on average than email security tools trained on knowledge of past threats, adding that its research revealed a 135% increase in "novel social engineering" attacks in 2023 amidst the widespread availability of ChatGPT.

"Email is the key vulnerability for businesses today. Defenders are up against sophisticated generative AI attacks and entirely novel scams that use techniques and reference topics that we have never seen before. In a world of increasing AI-powered attacks, we can no longer put the onus on humans to determine the veracity of communications they receive. This is now a job for artificial intelligence," said chief product officer Max Heinemeyer.

"Darktrace continues to lead the evolution of the cyber security industry through its unique approach that focuses not on past attacks, but on understanding the organization and how the people within it behave in order to stop novel social engineering attacks."

As of 0715 BST, Darktrace shares were up 2.16% at 263.26p.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com