{"id":70658,"date":"2025-04-21T18:08:40","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T22:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/?p=70658"},"modified":"2025-04-21T18:09:02","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T22:09:02","slug":"agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace\/","title":{"rendered":"Agentic AI gives Oklahoma cyber ops a powerful but ‘scary’ tool"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Michael Toland, the Oklahoma state government\u2019s top cybersecurity official, was recently confronted with a frightening experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t a ransomware attack. He didn\u2019t get into a car accident. It was the day he finally took his AI client off its leash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like most large government organizations, Oklahoma has for years been using various AI tools and machine learning models to trawl endless network logs for abnormal activity, but the growing barrage of cyberattacks fueled by the latest generative AI models has forced government agencies to react in kind. After several years of using network monitoring software from the British firm Darktrace in \u201chuman confirmation mode,\u201d Oklahoma last year allowed the company\u2019s \u201cCyber AI Analyst\u201d<\/a> product to make decisions on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little scary. It was for my teams,\u201d said Toland, who\u2019s served as Oklahoma\u2019s chief information security officer the past two years. \u201cYou tell it what to do, and it will decide how to do it. And anyone who\u2019s had children knows the fear of handing control over. You have to do it if you want to get to a certain place, but that doesn\u2019t make it easy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cplace\u201d Toland wants to go is one where he can keep pace with his attackers, the antagonistic nation-states and opportunistic ransomware groups volleying digital shells at his network. Bad actors are using AI to draft more-convincing phishing emails, gather better intelligence and write effective malware faster than they could in years past. Toland said he has no choice but to embrace a similar level of AI-fueled automation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy staff isn\u2019t going to get any bigger. My budget isn\u2019t going to get any bigger,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t buy your way out of the problem, you can\u2019t hire your way out of the problem. You have to be able to meet the bad guys where they are, which is why we need these AI agents: to deal with their AI agents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overseeing an IT security team of just 35 people, Toland said Oklahoma\u2019s network repels about 28 billion potential cybersecurity threats each year. All of Oklahoma\u2019s network traffic is funneled through a single digital canal where the Darktrace AI agent can make copies of network packets and scan them to alert staff of anything strange, like a foreign process or user, or a familiar one acting in new ways. In a recent month, the agent raised 3,000 alerts, 18 of which were identified as \u201ccritical.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toland estimated that the near-real-time scanning the Darktrace agent provides is the equivalent of as many as 500 human analysts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe bad guys have the same advantage,\u201d he said. \u201cThey can do more things faster. They can do things with less knowledge. The attack surface is getting bigger, the attack vectors are evolving and the bad guys are getting smarter. In terms of pure human capital, even if I had 1,000 people on my staff, there\u2019s a million out there trying to break in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darktrace is among the cybersecurity vendors advertising products that are \u201cagentic\u201d \u2014 that is, possessing the agency to behave on its own, within predefined limits. Toland said the agent doesn\u2019t have access to workstations, but can put the network\u2019s 4,000 devices on progressively longer time-outs when they behave oddly. As one tool in a broad suite of cybersecurity protections, Toland said the state monitors everything, down to the tone people use in their emails. A change in writing style could indicate nefarious activity is afoot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the four functions AI agents can serve \u2014 sensing, sensemaking, decision-making and acting \u2014 they\u2019re increasingly being granted greater autonomy, according to Sounil Yu, chief technology officer of the Virginia software firm Knostic. Yu said cybersecurity professionals should be careful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith many cybersecurity tools in the past, for good reason, we did not let it make decisions and then act on those decisions autonomously, because what could possibly go wrong? There\u2019s a lot of things that could possibly go wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s still the case today. I think a lot of people are going to be playing Russian roulette with security tools that they let go wild, without the proper decision-making and acting guardrails.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Toland pointed out that it\u2019s critical he find abnormal activity as quickly as possible. Data breaches go unidentified for 194 days, on average, according to IBM<\/a>. And during that time, bad actors can plant malware, ensuring that even organizations\u2019 backups are contaminated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yu agreed that in cybersecurity, the good guys are overwhelmed and underresourced, but said that it would be \u201cextraordinarily foolish\u201d for them to unleash agentic systems too early. He likened those using AI agents to wielding the power of 100 interns: AI is potentially a highly useful resource in the field of cybersecurity, but one that could go wrong quickly if not properly supervised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But long-term, Yu said, AI will favor the good guys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAI effectively levels the playing ground,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the advantage is moving over to the defender\u2019s side because we [will] have a first-mover\u2019s advantage. We can deploy things that are more secure from the beginning than we do today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oklahoma is giving its AI agents more latitude to make decisions, according to state Chief Information Security Officer Michael Toland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":205,"featured_media":70659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_grayscale_images":true,"grayscale_contrast":0,"sponsored_content":false,"display_author_bio":true,"story_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20646],"tags":[177,5272,12178,16536,25132,25561,25562,25563],"people":[],"special-report":[],"authors":[4696],"class_list":["post-70658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-oklahoma","tag-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-ciso","tag-cybersecurity","tag-government-news","tag-agentic-ai","tag-darktrace","tag-cyber-operations","author-colin-wood"],"yoast_head":"\nAgentic AI gives Oklahoma cyber ops a powerful but 'scary' tool | StateScoop<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Oklahoma is giving its AI agents more latitude to make decisions, according to state Chief Information Security Officer Michael Toland.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Agentic AI gives Oklahoma cyber ops a powerful but 'scary' tool | StateScoop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Oklahoma is giving its AI agents more latitude to make decisions, according to state Chief Information Security Officer Michael Toland.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"StateScoop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StateScoop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-21T22:08:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-21T22:09:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2150836965.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"896\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Colin Wood\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@State_Scoop\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@State_Scoop\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace\/\",\"name\":\"Agentic AI gives Oklahoma cyber ops a powerful but 'scary' tool | StateScoop\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2150836965.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-21T22:08:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-21T22:09:02+00:00\",\"description\":\"Oklahoma is giving its AI agents more latitude to make decisions, according to state Chief Information Security Officer Michael Toland.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2150836965.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2150836965.jpg\",\"width\":1300,\"height\":896,\"caption\":\"(Getty Images)\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/\",\"name\":\"StateScoop\",\"description\":\"Latest news and events in state and local government technology\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"StateScoop\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/01\/StateScoop-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/01\/StateScoop-Black.png\",\"width\":1470,\"height\":186,\"caption\":\"StateScoop\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StateScoop\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/State_Scoop\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/statescoop\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@StateScoop\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Agentic AI gives Oklahoma cyber ops a powerful but 'scary' tool | StateScoop","description":"Oklahoma is giving its AI agents more latitude to make decisions, according to state Chief Information Security Officer Michael Toland.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Agentic AI gives Oklahoma cyber ops a powerful but 'scary' tool | StateScoop","og_description":"Oklahoma is giving its AI agents more latitude to make decisions, according to state Chief Information Security Officer Michael Toland.","og_url":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace\/","og_site_name":"StateScoop","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StateScoop\/","article_published_time":"2025-04-21T22:08:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-04-21T22:09:02+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1300,"height":896,"url":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2150836965.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Colin Wood","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@State_Scoop","twitter_site":"@State_Scoop","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace\/","url":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace\/","name":"Agentic AI gives Oklahoma cyber ops a powerful but 'scary' tool | StateScoop","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2150836965.jpg","datePublished":"2025-04-21T22:08:40+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-21T22:09:02+00:00","description":"Oklahoma is giving its AI agents more latitude to make decisions, according to state Chief Information Security Officer Michael Toland.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/statescoop.com\/agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2150836965.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2150836965.jpg","width":1300,"height":896,"caption":"(Getty Images)"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/","name":"StateScoop","description":"Latest news and events in state and local government technology","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/#organization","name":"StateScoop","url":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/01\/StateScoop-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/01\/StateScoop-Black.png","width":1470,"height":186,"caption":"StateScoop"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StateScoop\/","https:\/\/x.com\/State_Scoop","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/statescoop\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@StateScoop"]}]}},"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Agentic AI gives Oklahoma cyber ops a powerful but ‘scary’ tool","url":"http:\/\/statescoop.com\/agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/statescoop.com\/agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2150836965.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2150836965.jpg"},"articleSection":"Cybersecurity","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Colin Wood","url":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/author\/colin-wood\/"}],"creator":["Colin Wood"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"StateScoop","logo":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/01\/cropped-ss_favicon.png"},"keywords":["agentic ai","artificial intelligence (ai)","ciso","cyber operations","cybersecurity","darktrace","government news","oklahoma"],"dateCreated":"2025-04-21T22:08:40Z","datePublished":"2025-04-21T22:08:40Z","dateModified":"2025-04-21T22:09:02Z"},"rendered":"<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"wp-parsely-metadata\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"headline\":\"Agentic AI gives Oklahoma cyber ops a powerful but ‘scary’ tool\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/statescoop.com\\\/agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace\\\/\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/statescoop.com\\\/agentic-ai-cybersecurity-state-government-darktrace\\\/\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/statescoop.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/6\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/GettyImages-2150836965.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/statescoop.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/6\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/GettyImages-2150836965.jpg\"},\"articleSection\":\"Cybersecurity\",\"author\":[{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"name\":\"Colin Wood\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/statescoop.com\\\/author\\\/colin-wood\\\/\"}],\"creator\":[\"Colin Wood\"],\"publisher\":{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"name\":\"StateScoop\",\"logo\":\"https:\\\/\\\/statescoop.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/6\\\/2023\\\/01\\\/cropped-ss_favicon.png\"},\"keywords\":[\"agentic ai\",\"artificial intelligence (ai)\",\"ciso\",\"cyber operations\",\"cybersecurity\",\"darktrace\",\"government news\",\"oklahoma\"],\"dateCreated\":\"2025-04-21T22:08:40Z\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-21T22:08:40Z\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-21T22:09:02Z\"}<\/script>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/statescoop.com\/p.js"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2150836965.jpg","distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"StateScoop","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/statescoop.com","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/205"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70658"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70662,"href":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70658\/revisions\/70662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70658"},{"taxonomy":"people","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/people?post=70658"},{"taxonomy":"special-report","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/special-report?post=70658"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/authors?post=70658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}