Colonial Group International is the first insurance company in Bermuda to deploy machine learning cyberdefence technology in its network.

The artificial intelligence technology comes from British and US-based Darktrace, and detects anomalies in a network without using rules or signatures.

The Enterprise Immune System uses self-learning technology and models the “pattern of life” of every device, user and network within an organisation to identify and mitigate cyberthreats.

“Darktrace gives us unique capabilities that we didn’t have before,” said Ben Mobley, technology security officer at Colonial Group International.

“Its self-learning AI technology, along with the advanced and user-friendly Threat Visualiser, means that we are now using it as our default security tool.”

Colonial Group International, which provides cover for businesses and individuals, has fully deployed the Enterprise Immune System in its head office in Bermuda. It is in the process of deploying it across its other offices in the British Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos.

The group reviewed the cybersecurity marketplace and selected Darktrace due to its ability to detect potential threats as they emerge, according to a statement issued on behalf of Darktrace.

“In particular, the group benefits from Darktrace’s ability to learn and constantly recalculate what is ‘normal’ for an organisation, and to use this evolving understanding to catch threats before they escalate into crises,” the statement added.

Darktrace has dual headquarters in Cambridge, England, and San Francisco. It was founded by mathematicians and machine learning specialists from the University of Cambridge, together with experts from Britain’s high intelligence community at MI5 and GCHQ.

The Enterprise Immune System technology, powered by unsupervised machine learning and probabilistic mathematics, detects anomalous changes in behaviour and flags unknown threats to Colonial’s security team.

Nick Trim, managing director, EMEA, at Darktrace, said: “We are excited that Colonial Group International has joined the growing number of organisations across the world that rely on Darktrace’s Enterprise Immune System to defend their data and networks.

“Machine learning is critical for cyberdefence, as today’s cyberthreats are growing faster and more sophisticated. Ours is the only technology to work entirely autonomously — learning ‘normal’ without guesswork or prior knowledge.”

The Enterprise Immune System, which is capable or detecting and responding to emerging cyberthreats from within a network, has had 2,000 deployments in more than 60 countries.