Covid-19 forced us to lead a virtual life, confined and away from the crowd. It also required us to rely on a security guard to protect our virtual space. Cybersecurity, then, took centre stage forcing all of us to understand the risks we were now exposed to. The result: An already growing sector, the cybersecurity product landscape, AI-based security startups in particular — just exploded. According to the Data Security Council of India (DSCI)’s latest report, the number of Indian cybersecurity product startups in 2020 has grown to over 225 from over 175 in 2018, while the revenue doubled to over $1 billion in 2020 from $475 million in 2018.
AI-based security startups have particularly been in the lead. As per DSCI, 63 per cent of data security products leverage AI/ML to enhance their production capabilities, perhaps because technologies such as AI/ ML are scalable, fast, efficient, and more accurate. “AI is like a foundational technology for several products such as network security, automated vulnerability management and privacy protection technologies. It is also used in self-healing technologies apart from deception, which is a proven area,” says Rama Vedashree,…
