Palo Alto Networks today unfurled a Strata Cloud Manager, a service through which it provides an ability to thwart cyberattacks, configure platforms and predict cybersecurity issues in a way that minimizes disruptions to business workflows.

In addition, the company has added five next-generation firewalls (NGFs) based on proprietary ASICs that provide 1.5 Tbps of throughput capacity for on-premises IT environments, including a ruggedized offering and a firewall that can be used on 5G wireless networks.

Navneet Singh, vice president of network security marketing for Palo Alto Networks, said Strata Cloud Manager makes use of more than 4,440 predictive artificial intelligence (AI) models to identify cybersecurity and capacity bottleneck issues up to seven days in advance.

Delivered inline, those tasks all run in real-time in the background to ensure cybersecurity best practices are being enforced everywhere there is a Palo Alto Networks firewall or secure access service edge (SASE) platform in a way that is transparent to end users, said Singh.

Collectively, these capabilities make it simpler for organizations to implement zero-trust IT policies in a way that can be centrally managed, he added.

At the core of the service is an Advanced WildFire engine infused with machine learning algorithms to detect and block malware as these attacks continue to evolve. Those algorithms identify anomalous behavior to enable Palo Alto Networks to identify and block malware as cybercriminals continually shift tactics and techniques, said Singh. It’s not uncommon for cybercriminals to continually evolve malware so that cybersecurity platforms that rely on signatures to detect types of malware are not going to be able to identify until an update is provided, he noted.

The platform can also detect and prevent meddler-in-the-middle (MitM) and phishing attacks hosted in software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. Additionally, URL filtering can anticipate and block 88% of malicious URLs two days earlier than rival platforms, the company claims.

In addition, Palo Alto Networks revealed it is also leveraging machine learning algorithms to detect Empire, a tool widely used in command-and-control (C2) attacks. The company claims to have a greater than 97% success rate in blocking highly evasive C2 attacks.

Cyberattacks have increased in volume and sophistication to the point where it is becoming impossible to thwart them without relying more on AI. At the same time, the overall attack surface that needs to be defended keeps expanding. The Palo Alto Networks approach provides organizations with a federated way to enforce cybersecurity policies across a distributed computing environment using a platform running the same core PAN-OS software, noted Singh.

It’s not clear how quickly organizations are embracing various forms of AI to strengthen cybersecurity, but it’s only a matter of time before cybercriminals employ many similar capabilities. As a result, it will become even more challenging for legacy cybersecurity platforms to detect attacks. Each organization will need to strike a balance between cost and the level of risk they are willing to accept, but it’s clear that with each successive wave, cybersecurity attacks are only going to become more lethal.