Raspberry Pi Signs Darktrace To Safeguard IP

Cambridge-based Raspberry Pi is using the technology of another local British firm to safeguard its corporate network from cyber threats including IP theft and ransomware.

It signed a deal with Darktrace, a British company that applies machine learning algorithms to cyber security in order to spot emerging cyber threats.

The Raspberry Pi celebrated its fifth birthday in 2017 with the launch of a brand new micro PC, namely the Raspberry Pi Zero W. The creators of these machines have made their name by selling more than 15 million low-cost, high-performance computers, mostly to the education market.

IP Protection

And in order to achieve such success, the firm has created “cutting edge” intellectual property. But in today’s world this IP is constantly at risk, hence the deal with Darktrace to utilise its Enterprise Immune System to protect Raspberry Pi’s network against IP theft, ransomware, as well as other vulnerabilities.

“Our intellectual property is the heart of our business and safeguarding it is of paramount importance,” said Eben Upton, CEO and founder at Raspberry Pi.

“Darktrace’s AI technology for cyber defense is a game-changer,” said Upton. “It provides us with full visibility into our network, including any connected personal devices, and other weak spots.

“Darktrace is unique in its ability to detect and remediate any emerging cyber-threats, including ‘unknown unknowns’ that routinely bypass legacy security tools,” said Upton. “It allows us to remain resilient in the face of a rapidly-evolving threat landscape – despite a flexible IT policy and a lean security team.”

Darktrace’s Enterprise Immune System utilises machine learning and AI algorithms, and then learns the normal ‘pattern of life’ for every user and device on a network. It uses this data to understand, detect and fight back against cyber-attacks in real time.

Days after its implementation, Darktrace identified several potential vulnerabilities on Raspberry Pi’s network, including the non-malicious use of the BitTorrent peer-to-peer filesharing protocol on a personal device attached to the network.

“We are delighted that this technological pioneer has selected Darktrace to catch vulnerabilities on its network and protect its progressive intellectual property,” said Poppy Gustafsson, CEO EMEA at Darktrace. “Our shared Cambridge heritage is also a point of great pride. Proven across 5,000 deployments worldwide, the Enterprise Immune System is the world’s only AI technology capable of detecting and fighting against in-progress threats in real time.”

Busy Company

Last year was a busy period for Raspberry Pi.

In the summer Raspberry Pi was awarded the UK’s top engineering accolade when it won the Royal Academy of Engineering’s MacRobert Award.

And then at December 2017 Google announced another hands-on artificial intelligence kit under its AIY partnership with the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

The search giant said this second kit allows users to build devices that can run computer vision tasks without the need for cloud-based resources.

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