Individuals, organizations, and societies have come to rely more and more on computational infrastructure, ranging from our personal computing devices to cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT).

This paper serves as the introduction to a special issue that emerged from an academic conference as part of Tel Aviv Cyber Week. It consists of three parts: an overview of the role of intelligent systems in cyber security, a case study on the use of intelligent systems to detect unauthorized access to IoT devices, and a preview of the papers contained in the special issue.

In the overview, the authors set the context by examining the definition of cyber security and the broader cyber phenomenon, followed by a section on the main cyber security trends. Then, they identify contributions of intelligent systems to industry. The next section contains a case study on an intelligent system for the detection of unauthorized IoT devices, apparently based on an unpublished document with one of the paper’s authors as co-author. The final section consists of previews for the papers making up the special issue, ranging from anomaly detection models to risk management and human behavior.

The paper succeeds in providing context to a selection of contributions from a conference that spotlight some aspects of intelligent systems and their role in cyber security. My initial hope for a systematic analysis of the role of intelligent systems for cyber security was overly optimistic, and could not be satisfied by such a special issue. Due to the rapid evolution of both domains, such an analysis is probably premature at this point, and will have to wait a few more years.