Welcome to our exclusive interview with Aimei Wei, the dynamic CTO of Stellar Cyber. Today, Aimei shares her remarkable journey in the tech world, her pivotal role in shaping Stellar Cyber's innovative cybersecurity approaches, and her vision of the evolving landscape of AI in cybersecurity. As we delve into her insights and experiences, prepare to be inspired by her unique perspective on technology, leadership, and the future of cyber defense.
Vested Interest Disclosure: This author is an independent contributor publishing via our brand-as-author program. Be it through direct compensation, media partnerships, or networking, the author has a vested interest in the company/ies mentioned in this story. HackerNoon has reviewed the report for quality, but the claims herein belong to the author. #DYOR
From Code to CTO: Aimei Wei's Inspiring Journey in Tech
Ishan Pandey: Hi Aimei; it's a pleasure to have you with us today. Stellar Cyber is known for helping organizations take control of their cybersecurity operations. Could you start by telling us about your journey in the tech industry and what led you to your role as CTO at Stellar Cyber?
Aimei Wei: I got interested in computers as I entered college, so I studied Computer Science, and then I left China and came to Canada with less than $300 to earn a Master’s degree at Queen’s University in Kingston.
I have always had a desire to work in a startup, even though I had a good career at Cisco Systems. With my kids grown up, I saw my husband launch Aerohive Networks and I thought I should take my turn and try it myself. While at Cisco, I saw the industry move from a perimeter-based model to an “anywhere is an attach point” model.
I saw security becoming more and more important, and I realized that most security tools required a lot of work for very little reward – there were thousands of alerts issued by a tool, but only a few of them really mattered, and analysts spent their days chasing alerts and often not discovering complex attacks for weeks or even months. My inspiration for starting Stellar Cyber was to simplify and unify cybersecurity so analysts could get direct, actionable advice about which threats to chase and when.
Ishan Pandey: Stellar Cyber's Open XDR platform stands out for its AI-driven approach to security operations. How do you see AI and machine learning transforming the field of cybersecurity, especially in threat detection and response?
Aimei Wei: Cybersecurity detection and response is a heavily data-intensive process. Generally speaking, AI should be able to help organizations improve their security posture by detecting and responding to threats more quickly and accurately than with traditional methods, because it can analyze more data more quickly than humans can.
An AI-driven cybersecurity platform can report detections as context-based incidents with specific pointers about how to address them, making it much easier and faster to investigate and remediate attacks. With the latest developments in Large Language Models, an AI-driven cybersecurity platform can potentially allow users to interact with the platform using natural language. This greatly eases the cybersecurity analyst shortage by enabling the use of lower-skilled security analysts who may be more readily available, as well as less expensive.
Another point is that most cybersecurity defense solutions to date have been reactive, rather than proactive - you’re always behind the curve because you only learn about an attack after it’s well underway. Our AI-driven Open XDR Platform allows organizations to really take control of their security environment because it integrates with all existing security tools to continually scan the entire infrastructure and immediately alert analysts to potential threats.
Ishan Pandey: With the increasing complexity of cyber threats, what are the key challenges that your platform addresses? And how does Stellar Cyber's AI technology specifically tackle these challenges?
Aimei Wei: Our AI-driven Open XDR platform automates threat detection and response, so it allows security teams to focus on more complex tasks. For example, our platform can detect and automatically respond to commodity attacks like phishing emails, malware, and others, leaving analysts relatively free to dive into more complex, human-operated attacks.
Our AI can also analyze user behavior patterns and detect anomalous behavior that could indicate a threat: it uses Machine Learning algorithms to detect and respond to suspicious user activity in real time, using a baseline understanding of what constitutes normal user behavior.
Ishan Pandey: Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and Extended Detection and Response (XDR) are crucial in cybersecurity. How does Stellar Cyber's platform integrate with these systems, and what advantages does it offer over traditional methods?
Aimei Wei: Our platform is an XDR solution that includes a next-generation SIEM as well as a SOAR, NDR, UEBA and TIP function, all under one license, so it delivers a lot of cybersecurity functionality out of the box. However, it also comes with built-in integrations with every other popular third-party security tool, which allows customers to continue leveraging their investments in their existing EDAs or other solutions.
Our platform uniquely forms the basis of a SecOps center that collects, analyzes and responds to security data from throughout the infrastructure, offering a truly holistic view of an organization’s security posture and the ability to protect it effectively, giving users real control over their security.
Ishan Pandey: Considering the future, where do you see the role of AI in cybersecurity heading? And how is Stellar Cyber preparing to adapt and lead in this evolving landscape?
Aimei Wei: Our company was a pioneer in the use of AI, and I believe AI will become more adept at threat detection and response, automating security operations, enabling predictive analytics, and becoming easier and easier to use.
For example, we use AI to create prioritized lists of threats with specific pointers about how to address them, and we are now integrating Generative AI technology into our platform to enable users to interact with it using natural language.
Ishan Pandey: Lastly, for organizations looking to enhance their cybersecurity measures, what advice would you offer, especially in terms of leveraging AI and machine learning technologies?
Aimei Wei: There’s a lot of AI hype and mistrust in the marketplace, so the first thing organizations should do is to educate themselves on how AI works in cybersecurity platforms. Risk managers can improve their trust in AI by thoroughly understanding how AI arrives at its conclusions, and by ensuring that any baseline profiling for AI or ML is done with the organization’s own data.
AI-powered cybersecurity platforms can generate a false sense of security that leads to complacency, so organizations should periodically cross-check AI-generated results to ensure that they’re accurate. Finally, AI systems can themselves be vulnerable to cyberattacks. Given the potential for heightened attack damage, organizations must take steps to fully secure their AI-driven cybersecurity systems.
Don’t forget to like and share the story!