Microsoft says it’s developed a prototype AI program that can reverse engineer malware, automating a task usually reserved for expert human security researchers. The prototype, dubbed Project Ire, was designed to tackle one of toughest assignments in security research: “Fully reverse engineering a software file without any clues about its origin or purpose,” the company said in a Tuesday blog post. In one Microsoft test, Project Ire was able to correctly identify 90% of malicious Windows driver files. In addition, the AI program flagged only 2% of benign files as dangerous. “This low false-positive rate suggests clear potential for deployment in security operations, alongside expert reverse engineering reviews,” the company says. The IT security industry has long tapped AI, such as machine learning, to improve malware detection. However, Microsoft’s Project Ire joins other companies in leveraging large language models to investigate and flag potential security threats. For more, he...