Ngao

The modern AI security agent for modern organisation

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Inspiration

What it does## Inspiration

Kenya my country is leading in mobile money transactions in the world, thanks to Mpesa, this fintech ecosystem is the corner stone of our economy and participating in securing these financial, health, education and government systems, services and data is the biggest inspiration for me, as a data engineer this is duty to my country .

Goal 9 seeks to build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation. Economic growth, social development and climate action are heavily dependent on investments in infrastructure, sustainable industrial development and technological progress. Failing to improve infrastructure and promote technological innovation could translate into poor health care, inadequate sanitation and limited access to education.

According to UN, the manufacturing industry’s recovery from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic remains incomplete and uneven. Global manufacturing growth slowed down to 3.3 per cent in 2022, from 7.4 per cent in 2021.

Progress in least developed countries (LDCs) is far from sufficient to reach the target of doubling the manufacturing share in gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030. However, medium-high- and high-technology industries demonstrated robust growth rates.As of 2022, 95 per cent of the world’s population was within reach of a mobile broadband network, but some areas remain underserved.

What it does

Ngao+ offers a comprehensive and innovative solution to tackle cybersecurity threats and challenges. Leveraging Google Cloud's advanced capabilities, it provides real-time threat detection, predictive analysis, and automated incident response, setting it apart as a unique and effective cybersecurity solution.

The reason Ngao+ should be adapted not only in Kenya but Africa are, it provides

  • Real-time threat detection and proactive response.
  • Scalable and adaptable to organizations of all sizes.
  • Integration of external threat feeds for comprehensive threat intelligence.
  • Predictive analysis for future threat identification.
  • Automation of incident response for faster mitigation.
  • Compliance reporting and evidence collection. ## How we built it

Built on Google Cloud Platform, Ngao+, offers a comprehensive and innovative solution to tackle cybersecurity threats and challenges. Leveraging Google Cloud's advanced capabilities in :

  1. Data Collection and Ingestion:

    • Utilize Google Cloud Pub/Sub to ingest data from various sources, such as system logs, network traffic, and threat feeds.
    • Use Cloud Dataflow to process and transform data for analysis.

  2. Advanced Threat Detection:

    • Implement machine learning models for anomaly detection using Cloud AI Platform.
    • Use Cloud Security Command Center for threat detection and response.
    • Employ Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM) to ensure that only authorized users and services can access critical resources.

  3. Threat Intelligence Integration:

    • Integrate with third-party threat intelligence feeds for the latest threat indicators.
    • Use BigQuery for data warehousing and analysis of historical threat data.

  4. Real-time Monitoring and Visualization:

    • Create a real-time dashboard using Google Cloud Data Studio to monitor the security posture.
    • Leverage Cloud Monitoring and Cloud Logging for comprehensive log analysis and alerting.

  5. Incident Response Automation:

    • Use Cloud Functions to automate incident response actions based on detected threats.
    • Develop a playbook in Cloud Composer for orchestrated incident response.

  6. User Behavior Analytics:

    • Implement user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) using Cloud Machine Learning to identify insider threats and unusual user activities.

  7. Scalability and Elasticity:

    • Utilize Kubernetes Engine for containerized components to ensure scalability.
    • Implement auto-scaling for resource optimization during high-traffic periods.

  8. Secure Data Storage:

    • Leverage Google Cloud Storage for securely storing threat data and logs.
    • Implement encryption and access controls to protect sensitive information.

  9. Machine Learning for Predictive Analysis:

    • Train machine learning models on Google AI Platform to predict future threats based on historical data and patterns.
    • Use Google Cloud AutoML for custom model development.

  10. Reporting and Compliance:

    • Generate compliance reports using Google Cloud Data Studio to ensure adherence to industry standards and regulations.
    • Implement Google Cloud Key Management Service for data encryption and key management.

Challenges we ran into

My teammate Christine and I are fully employed and finding time to study and take online courses to build the project was tough and really challenging.

Other challenges we ran into from a data engineering standpoint, was the way to constructed the pipeline to minimize latency at every single step. If it's a Dataflow job, we designed it so that as many elements as possible are happening in parallel because if data comes in late, especially when it comes to cybersecurity, it's no longer valuable, especially, during an emergency .

At the end we had to deal with challenges associated with streaming applications, you're talking about the 3V's;

volume challenge because the data never stops coming and quickly grows, then velocity and It is important to design systems that can handle that extra load. Variety of data is the third challenge. If you are using only structured data, data coming from a mobile app, that is easy enough to handle. But what if you have unstructured data like voice data or images?

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We learned streaming in the Cloud can help us here, so took a Data Engineering, Big Data, and Machine Learning on Google Cloud Plartform Specialization on Coursera, passed all requirements and earned course certificates.

What we learned

During the course work, on the volume side we found a tool to assist in autoscaling processing and analysis, so that the system can handle the volume. On the velocity side, a tool that can handle the variability of the streaming process was available. On the variety side, we looked at how artificial intelligence could help us with unstructured data. ## What's next for kafunge Ngao+ to be adapted not only in Kenya but also by Africa's largest organisations as their one-stop threat intelligence platform that leverages Google Cloud's advanced features to proactively detect and mitigate cybersecurity threats in real-time.

Build a sustainability and profitability business requiring a combination of smart pricing, diversification of revenue streams, excellent customer service, and a commitment to ongoing improvement and innovation. We intent to stay agile and adapt to the evolving cybersecurity landscape to remain competitive and meet customer needs.

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