Manchester, UK – 16^th September 2021 – Netacea, the bot detection and mitigation specialist, today unveils how collaborating with the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) scheme and the University of Nottingham contributed to advancing its solution to block automated bot attacks in real-time. The partnership also assisted Netacea in decreasing the average onboarding time for businesses from one month to one week, whilst reducing the overall cost.

The KTP scheme is a government funded programme which enables UK businesses to innovate and grow by linking them with an academic or research organisation and a graduate. As part of the relationship, David Fricker, who has a master's in computer science from the University of Nottingham, joined the Netacea team as a data scientist. The aim of the collaboration was to support Netacea in evolving its anomaly detection solution, which identifies unusual patterns of behaviour within website traffic to help better detect attacks. Netacea wanted to categorise traffic into anomalous or normal, understand the users' profile and uncover their intent.

Thanks to the joint efforts of the University of Nottingham, KTP and Netacea's highly experienced internal data science team, Netacea's anomaly detection solution now alerts businesses to whether traffic is good or bad, instantaneously. Together, the teams built artificial intelligence systems which categorise users and their intent in real-time. Once traffic is identified as malicious, Netacea blocks the user in real-time or provides businesses with a threat intelligence feed offering protection from various automated threat attacks according to their own risk appetite.

The project has contributed to Netacea unlocking new opportunities. Furthermore, it has helped cut the average onboarding time from one month to one week, reduced the overall cost of the onboarding process and decreased the time-to-value for businesses.

"Working with the University of Nottingham and KTP has directly influenced several of Netacea's product innovations and ultimately impacted our core offering," said Andy Still, CTO at Netacea. "We are delighted to report that access to the university's state-of-the-art research has contributed to the company's overall strategy, with the development of effective machine-learning-based models for the identification and categorisation of cyber-attacks in real-time."

"I have gained invaluable experience as both an active contributing member of the Netacea Data Science team, and alongside Mercedes and the team of academics at the University of Nottingham. Working with the KTP has set me up with the skills and knowledge I need to forge a career in cybersecurity," said David Fricker, KTP Associate and Data Scientist at Netacea. 

To learn more, please join our upcoming webinar during which Netacea data scientist David Fricker and the University of Nottingham's Dr Mercedes Torres Torres will explore how a KTP between the organisations resulted in the creation of Intent Clustering. The webinar – Technical Showcase: How Netacea developed Intent Clustering technology – takes place on the 14th October at 16:00 (UK) / 11:00 (ET).

About Netacea

Netacea, a bot detection and mitigation platform, takes a smarter approach to bot management and is a recognised leader for its innovative use of threat intelligence and machine learning. Netacea's Intent Analytics™ engine analyses web and API logs in near real-time to identify and mitigate bot threats. This unique approach provides businesses with transparent, actionable threat intelligence that empowers them to make informed decisions about their traffic.

About KTP

This partnership received financial support from the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) programme. KTP aims to help businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills that reside within the UK knowledge base. This successful Knowledge Transfer Partnership project, funded by UK Research and Innovation through Innovate UK, is part of the government's Industrial Strategy.

About the University of Nottingham

The University of Nottingham is a research-intensive university with a proud heritage. Studying at the University of Nottingham is a life-changing experience and we pride ourselves on unlocking the potential of our students. We have a pioneering spirit, expressed in the vision of our founder Sir Jesse Boot, which has seen us lead the way in establishing campuses in China and Malaysia - part of a globally connected network of education, research and industrial engagement. The University's state-of-the-art facilities and inclusive and disability sport provision is reflected in its status as The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021 Sports University of the Year. We are ranked eighth for research power in the UK according to REF 2014. We have six beacons of research excellence helping to transform lives and change the world; we are also a major employer and industry partner - locally and globally. Alongside Nottingham Trent University, we lead the Universities for Nottingham initiative, a pioneering collaboration which brings together the combined strength and civic missions of Nottingham's two world-class universities and is working with local communities and partners to aid recovery and renewal following the Covid-19 pandemic.