Google launched Google Threat Intelligence at the RSA Conference 2024 in an effort to leverage its scale, reach, and AI technology to provide a unique threat intelligence offering. The new service, as described by Sunil Potti, vice president, and general manager of Google Cloud Security, and Sandra Joyce, vice president of Google Threat Intelligence, combines insights from Mandiant’s incident response investigations, crowdsourced intelligence from VirusTotal’s community, and data from various open-source intelligence sources.

One of the key features of Google Threat Intelligence is its vast sensor array, which includes 4 billion devices and 1.5 billion email accounts, with the capability to block 100 million phishing attempts per day. This extensive reach allows Google to gather valuable insights and data to power its threat intelligence platform.

The service is also powered by Gemini, Google’s multimodal artificial intelligence model, which helps to operationalize threat intelligence faster and enables security teams to respond more quickly to emerging threats. According to Potti and Joyce, Gemini 1.5 Pro can simplify the process of reverse engineering malware, as evidenced by its ability to identify the killswitch in the WannaCry malware in just 34 seconds.

The addition of Google Threat Intelligence to the Google Cloud Security portfolio, which includes Mandiant Consulting and Google Security Operations, demonstrates the company’s commitment to providing comprehensive security solutions to its customers. Analysts, such as Katell Thielemann from Gartner, believe that the combination of Google’s global telemetry, expert knowledge, crowdsourced information, and AI technology will make Google Threat Intelligence a formidable tool for IT security teams.

John Hultquist, a Mandiant Intelligence analyst, highlighted the potential of Google’s acquisition of Mandiant in enhancing the company’s threat intelligence capabilities. He emphasized the wealth of threat data that Google has access to, thanks to its global reach, and the opportunities this data presents in enhancing security measures.

However, there are concerns about the misuse of such valuable security data by threat actors. Hultquist acknowledged the importance of ensuring that the information gathered through Google Threat Intelligence is utilized by the right hands and not misused for malicious purposes.

Overall, Google Threat Intelligence represents a significant step forward in the realm of threat intelligence, leveraging Google’s vast resources and cutting-edge technology to provide valuable insights and enhance security operations. With the potential to revolutionize threat intelligence processes, Google Threat Intelligence could provide a significant advantage to security teams in mitigating cyber threats and safeguarding critical assets.

Source link