Lloyds Banking Group Patents GCE False Alarm Filter
Lloyds Banking Group, the UK's largest retail and commercial financial services provider, has secured patent protection for its cybersecurity innovation designed to reduce false positive alerts that plague security operations.
The technology, called the Global Correlation Engine (GCE), addresses a persistent challenge in the cybersecurity sector where security software often flags legitimate activities as potential threats.
These false positives consume security team resources that could be better deployed investigating genuine attacks.
Cross-referencing capabilities reduce investigation burden
The GCE works by storing and analysing alerts across different cybersecurity technologies to identify common attributes, trends and potential connections between security events.
By cross-referencing this information against known components and indicators of cyber-attacks, the system can assess and identify genuine threats with greater precision.
Since implementing the GCE, Lloyds reports that investigations of false positives have reduced significantly, while maintaining vigilance against genuine attacks.
This allows the bank's security teams to focus resources on legitimate threats rather than investigating harmless anomalies.
Patent protection secured in UK and US markets
“Our Global Correlation Engine is an exciting innovation that will allow us to identify genuine threats more quickly and efficiently, ensuring customers are protected"
The Intellectual Property Office has granted Lloyds its first-ever patent for the GCE methodology, which has also been approved in the United States.
This patent covers the intelligent algorithms used to analyse and prioritise cybersecurity alerts based on their likelihood of representing actual threats.
Lloyds is now developing the technology further by incorporating multiple algorithmic layers, including artificial intelligence (AI) - a branch of computer science focused on creating systems that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence.
This enhancement aims to improve the system's ability to distinguish between normal banking operations and malicious activities.
Applications beyond traditional cyber-attacks
While the GCE was initially developed to combat conventional cyber-attacks – coordinated attempts to disrupt, damage or gain unauthorised access to computer systems – Lloyds sees broader applications for the technology.
The system's methodology could potentially be applied to detecting e-crime, supply chain fraud, and cyber-enabled fraud – criminal activities that use digital systems to facilitate traditional fraud schemes.
Matt Rowe, Chief Security Officer at Lloyds Banking Group, says: “Our Global Correlation Engine is an exciting innovation that will allow us to identify genuine threats more quickly and efficiently, ensuring customers are protected.
“We're working to develop the Engine further, using artificial intelligence to supercharge its capabilities.
“This innovation, developed by our world-class cyber experts, demonstrates our commitment to advancing cybersecurity and protecting our customers with cutting-edge technology.”
Lloyds Banking Group serves approximately 27 million customers through its portfolio of brands including Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Scottish Widows.
With a presence in nearly every UK community, the 320-year-old institution provides retail and commercial banking, general insurance and long-term savings products.
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