Agentic Investigations in the SOC

Dr. Jeff Schwartzentruber is a Senior Machine Learning Scientist at eSentire, working on anomaly detection pipelines and the use of large language models to enhance cybersecurity operations.The Evolution of AI in Cyber Security // MLOps Podcast #344 with Jeff Schwartzentruber, Staff Machine Learning Scientist at eSentire.

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// Abstract

Modern cyber operations can feel opaque. This talk explains—step by step—what a security operations center (SOC) actually does, how telemetry flows in from networks, endpoints, and cloud apps, and what an investigation can credibly reveal about attacker behavior, exposure, and control gaps. We then trace how AI has shown up in the SOC: from rules and classic machine learning for detection to natural-language tools that summarize alerts and turn questions like “show failed logins from new countries in the last 24 hours” into fast database queries. The core of the talk is our next step: agentic investigations. These GenAI agents plan their work, run queries across tools, cite evidence, and draft analyst-grade findings—with guardrails and a human in the loop. We close with what’s next: risk-aware auto-remediation, verifiable knowledge sources, and a practical checklist for adopting these capabilities safely.

// Bio

Dr. Jeff Schwartzentruber holds the position of Sr. Machine Learning Scientist at eSentire – a Canadian cybersecurity company specializing in Managed Detection and Response (MDR). Dr. Schwartzentruber’s primary academic and industry research has been concentrated on solving problems at the intersection of cybersecurity and machine learning (ML). Over his +10-year career, Dr. Schwartzentruber has been involved in applying ML for threat detection and security analytics for several large Canadian financial institutions, public sector organizations (federal), and SME’s. In addition to his private sector work, Dr. Schwartzentruber is also an Adjunct Faculty at Dalhousie University in the Department of Computer Science, a Special Graduate Faculty member with the School of Computer Science at the University of Guelph, and a Sr. Advisor on AI at the Rogers Cyber Secure Catalysts.

// Related Links

Website: https://www.esentire.com/

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