Story highlights Darktrace uses AI to spot emerging cyber threats

Its system learns and adapts to fight attacks

(CNN) Every year cyber attacks are becoming more sophisticated and frequent -- and it's predicted they'll cost the world $8 trillion by 2022.

But a company founded by mathematicians and ex-spies is trying to change the way organizations protect themselves from hackers.

British cyber security firm Darktrace is using artificial intelligence to create a "cyber immune system."

Usually, companies try to anticipate what an attack would look like and ask their computers to look for anomalies that match that description. But Darktrace says it has come up with a system that learns what is normal behavior within a company's network, and can then make intelligent judgments to spot emerging threats -- even if it experiences a new, complex attack that it's never seen before.

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