Amazon utilizes AI to analyze 200 cyber threats in 90 minutes... changing the "ATA" security paradigm.

Amazon ( AMZN ) has announced details of its AI-based autonomous cybersecurity system ATA. This system achieves full-process automation from vulnerability identification to response proposal and has been rated as capable of significantly reducing security inspection and repair time.

ATA was born out of a hackathon project within Amazon, utilizing an architecture where two groups of AI agents work collaboratively. The first group is responsible for detecting security vulnerabilities in the system, while the second group seeks solutions and tests the feasibility of practical applications. According to Amazon, the system can simulate over 200 hacking attack scenarios within 90 minutes and can conduct surprise checks on the overall operational environment of a business, showing significant improvements in production efficiency and accuracy compared to traditional manual operations.

One particularly noteworthy feature is “Variant Analysis”. This feature can identify security risks that are difficult for humans to recognize by analyzing the likelihood that a certain vulnerability exists in other systems or applications in the same or similar manner. For instance, in multiple pieces of code that perform the same function but are written in different languages, the system can accurately identify common security flaws.

The technical foundation of ATA is based on a real attack simulation environment. Amazon builds a testing platform with virtual self-owned infrastructure, directly using the attack commands actually employed by hackers for testing. The logs and telemetry data collected from this become an important basis for improving the judgment accuracy of AI agents.

Amazon has also validated the effectiveness of ATA specifically for reverse Shell attack scenarios, particularly those based on Python attack techniques. During testing, ATA successfully identified multiple vulnerabilities and generated detection code capable of 100% blocking such attacks. This not only reflects breakthroughs in detection technology but also showcases the evolutionary potential of network security automation technology in autonomously building response systems within a limited scope.

Since its debut at the Amazon internal hackathon in August, ATA has officially become a security tool, applied to multiple security inspection projects. Amazon plans to expand the system in the future into a real-time security incident response tool. The evolution of ATA signifies a new paradigm in cybersecurity — a foundational technology that can perceive threats and respond quickly without human intervention is taking shape in large-scale infrastructure management environments centered around the cloud.