Searchlight Cyber, a Portsmouth, England-based external cyber risk management platform, has introduced a new artificial intelligence (AI) capability within its dark web investigation platform, Cerberus. This new feature, the Searchlight AI Agent, is designed to summarize the activity of dark web threat actors, providing a concise overview for law enforcement and cybersecurity professionals.
Criminals frequently utilize the dark web to obscure their identities, employing multiple aliases, burner accounts, and operating across various sites. Historically, this has created a labor-intensive process for investigators attempting to attribute activity and profile individuals. The Searchlight AI Agent aims to expedite this process by generating an automated summary of threat actors, leveraging Searchlight’s extensive collection of over 15 years of dark web data.
The AI Agent’s summaries are intended to help investigators quickly identify profiles of interest, determine relevance to specific areas of focus, and uncover new leads. Key details included in the summaries encompass: dark web post analysis, which provides an overview of an actor’s content and interactions, including activity dates and posting patterns; digital identifiers such as email addresses, PGP keys, and handles for messaging platforms like Telegram, WhatsApp, Jabber, and TOX; relevant open-source intelligence from reliable reports; and vendor insights for marketplace sellers, detailing goods sold, shipping and payment information, customer feedback, and reputation.
David Osler, Head of Product at Searchlight Cyber, stated, “We hold a significant volume of valuable contextual data on threat actors operating on the dark web, and the new Searchlight AI Agent enables us to deliver this to customers efficiently. This can reduce hours of investigation time previously spent manually searching forums, marketplaces, and encrypted chats to piece together actor information. Analysts can now quickly assess an actor’s relevance to their investigation and identify new avenues of inquiry within seconds.”
This AI Agent represents the latest in a series of AI enhancements to the Cerberus platform over the past two years, which have also included AI-powered Language Translation, Thread Summarization, and Sentiment Analysis. Searchlight Cyber collaborates with its customers to identify areas where AI can support investigations aimed at combating online crime.
Founded in 2017, Searchlight Cyber’s mission is to counter threat actor impunity. Its External Cyber Risk Management Platform provides Attack Surface Management and Threat Intelligence tools designed to distinguish actionable intelligence from noise. The platform is utilized by large enterprises, government and law enforcement agencies, and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) focused on protecting customers from external threats.
