IBM said Watson will be at the core of its cognitive platform for cybersecurity operations. In a nutshell, Watson will aim to ride shot gun with security analysts to defend against attacks.

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Big Blue announced general availability of Watson for Cyber Security, an offering that has been tested with more than 40 customers over the last year. In that time, Watson has ingested more than 1 million security documents.

The aim is to help security analysts go through Watson's knowledge base with natural language. IBM is also integrating its X-Force Command Center network, which tracks security events.

IBM is announcing the Watson Cognitive Security Operation Centers at the RSA security conference this week in San Francisco.

Among the key points:

Watson will be integrated into IBM's Cognitive Security Operations Center platform that tracks endpoint, network, user-based, and cloud security issues.

IBM will provide a new security app dubbed QRadar Advisor with Watson. The app has access to Watson's insights.

Avnet, University of Brunswick and 40 global customers are using the app.

A Watson chatbot is used in IBM's Managed Security Services effort.

IBM also detailed Havyn, a voice security assistant that's built on Watson.

One key takeaway from IBM's move is that the company is hoping to use Watson to patch a shortage of security analysts and knowhow. With its various tools and data, IBM security operations platform aims to cut the time spent on cybersecurity investigations.

IBM's cognitive security operations platform is available on premise or as an IBM Cloud offering.

IBM Watson can now do your taxes for you: