{"615920":{"#nid":"615920","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Microsoft AI competition explores the next evolution of predictive technologies in security","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThis post appeared on December 13, 2018 in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cloudblogs.microsoft.com\/microsoftsecure\/2018\/12\/13\/microsoft-ai-competition-explores-the-next-evolution-of-predictive-technologies-in-security\/\u0022\u003EMicrosoft Blog\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EPredictive technologies are already effective at detecting and blocking malware \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows\/security\/threat-protection\/windows-defender-antivirus\/configure-block-at-first-sight-windows-defender-antivirus\u0022\u003Eat first sight\u003C\/a\u003E. A\u003Cstrong\u003E \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.kaggle.com\/c\/microsoft-malware-prediction\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Enew malware prediction competition\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E on Kaggle will challenge the data science community to push these technologies even further\u0026mdash;to stop malware before it is even seen.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe Microsoft-sponsored competition calls for participants to predict if a device is likely to encounter malware given the current machine state. Participants will build models using 9.4GB of anonymized data from 16.8M devices, and the resulting models will be scored by their ability to make correct predictions. Winning teams get $25,000 in total prizes.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe competition provides academics and researchers with varied backgrounds a fresh opportunity to work on a real-world problem using a fresh set of data from Microsoft. Results from the contest will help us identify opportunities to further improve Microsoft\u0026rsquo;s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cloudblogs.microsoft.com\/microsoftsecure\/2017\/12\/11\/detonating-a-bad-rabbit-windows-defender-antivirus-and-layered-machine-learning-defenses\/\u0022\u003Elayered defenses\u003C\/a\u003E, focusing on preventative protection. Not all machines are equally likely to get malware; competitors will help build models for identifying devices that have a higher risk of getting malware so that preemptive action can be taken.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cloudblogs.microsoft.com\/microsoftsecure\/2018\/09\/24\/delivering-security-innovation-that-puts-microsofts-experience-to-work-for-you\/\u0022\u003ECybersecurity is the central challenge of our digital age\u003C\/a\u003E. Today, Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windowsforbusiness\/windows-atp?ocid=cx-blog-mmpc\u0022\u003EWindows Defender ATP\u003C\/a\u003E) uses intelligent systems to protect millions of devices against cyberattacks every day. \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cloudblogs.microsoft.com\/microsoftsecure\/2018\/08\/09\/protecting-the-protector-hardening-machine-learning-defenses-against-adversarial-attacks\/\u0022\u003EMachine learning\u003C\/a\u003E and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/AI\/our-approach-to-ai\u0022\u003Eartificial intelligence\u003C\/a\u003E drive cloud-delivered protections that catch and predict new and emerging threats.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWe also believe in the power of working with the broader research community to stay ahead of threats. \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cloudblogs.microsoft.com\/microsoftsecure\/2018\/09\/24\/delivering-security-innovation-that-puts-microsofts-experience-to-work-for-you\/\u0022\u003EMicrosoft\u0026rsquo;s 2015 malware classification competition\u003C\/a\u003E on Kaggle was a huge success, with the dataset provided by Microsoft \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/1802.10135\u0022\u003Ecited in more than 50 research papers\u003C\/a\u003E in multiple languages. To this day, the 0.5TB dataset from that competition is still used for research and continues to produce value for Microsoft and the data science community. This new competition is organized by the Windows Defender ATP Research team, in cooperation with Northeastern University and Georgia Institute of Technology as academic partners, with the goal of bringing new ideas to the fight against malware attacks and breaches.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.kaggle.com\/\u0022\u003EKaggle\u003C\/a\u003E is a platform for data scientists to create data science projects, download datasets, and participate in contests. Microsoft is happy to use the Kaggle platform to engage a rich community of amazing thinkers. We think this collaboration will result in better protection for Microsoft customers and the Internet at large. Stay tuned for the results, we can\u0026rsquo;t wait to see what the data science community comes up with!\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.kaggle.com\/c\/microsoft-malware-prediction\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EClick here to join the competition\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EChase Thomas\u003C\/strong\u003E and \u003Cstrong\u003ERobert McCann\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Cem\u003EWindows Defender Research team\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMicrosoft invites data scientists in the academic and research community to explore the next evolution of predictive technologies in security.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Microsoft invites data scientists in the academic and research community to explore the next evolution of predictive technologies in security."}],"uid":"27842","created_gmt":"2019-01-04 17:59:40","changed_gmt":"2019-01-04 17:59:40","author":"Ashlee Gardner","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2019-01-04T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2019-01-04T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1255","name":"School of Electrical and Computer Engineering"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"1404","name":"Cybersecurity"},{"id":"92811","name":"data science"},{"id":"7772","name":"malware"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"145171","name":"Cybersecurity"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAshlee Gardner\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:ashlee.gardner@ece.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Eashlee.gardner@ece.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["ashlee.gardner@ece.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}