The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has recruited cybersecurity group Castlepoint Systems to prevent data leaks through its AI data control technology.
The Canberra-based firm has been tasked with strengthening the department’s data protection to avoid harmful leaks, such as the 2022 Afghan data breach that saw the details of nearly 19,000 individuals mistakenly sent outside secure channels.
Castlepoint will provide AI data labelling services to automatically identify sensitive information and apply the correct security classifications to it.
This also extends to legacy records that may contain missing or outdated labels in a process called retrospective classification.
“The MoD faces a complex challenge in managing vast and sensitive datasets in the knowledge that even a single case of data leak or loss can be catastrophic,” said Castlepoint chief executive Rachael Greaves.
“I’m pleased that after undertaking a very thorough global search, Castlepoint was selected by MoD as the best solution to solve this problem.
“Castlepoint, with Explainable AI and true autoclassification at its core, can increase labelling accuracy and coverage without disrupting the essential work of MoD personnel.”
The contract marks the first UK account for the Australian tech company and comes as the MoD has been granted significant new funds to invest in defence technology.
The Spring Statement in March saw Chancellor Rachel Reeves announce a £2.2bn funding boost for the department and a mandate to invest a minimum of 10% of its budget on technology.
Read more: MoD tech spending could be just what British AI needs
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