In the area of artificial intelligence (AI), cyber security start-up Darktrace is one of the most fascinating businesses in the space.

Launched in Cambridge five years back with a mixture of mathematicians, former intelligence agents, along with specialists from the tech business, it has quickly risen to the peak of the united kingdom tech scene, gaining a coveted unicorn evaluation of $1.25 billion across the way.

When some technology companies can barely fit one woman on their board, then it is great to see Darktrace championing women in technology this way.

"It is only something I'm mindful of when I am doing interviews or if I'm in a business event and you find a sea of men looking back at you," CEO Gustafsson tells.

"It is only ever a fleeting glance and then you get back on with it"

This no-nonsense mindset has propelled Gustafsson to her high-flying place at Darktrace and cemented her among the tech business's ones to see. Here is what you need to learn about Gustafsson.

The shifting battlegrounds

Gustafsson has become the minority gender for the majority of her lifetime, beginning with her maths degree at the University of Sheffield. She analyzed a accountancy qualification at Deloitte, before trying to find a venture capital firm and a few tech firms until the chance to join Darktrace's founding team came together.

She says the aspirations for the firm were what brought her.

Darktrace's CEO Poppy Gustafsson (Darktrace)

It's fascinating discussing Darktrace's starts with Gustafsson as you have to throw your mind back to five years ago when cyber security was not regarded as intriguing or integral to companies since it is now.

In 2016 there was the Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee, for which 13 people have just been indicted.

Now, every week that appears to be yet another firm announcing a data violation; many lately Timehop. Darktrace has thrived with this backdrop, growing out of the initial space in Cambridge into 33 offices around the world.

What's been happening?

"Beforehand, safety was about keeping the bad guys away from your network by having a big strong walls," says Gustafsson. "[But] our founders believed that at some stage the cyber violation was inevitable so we have to consider identifying the assault in the first phases and stopping it."

Darktrace's USP is its Enterprise Immune System product that likens networks into the human body's immune system. "Exactly what the immune system is it has an inborn sense of self -- it knows who you are and could identify a virus that arrives into the body by virtue of this fact it is not possible," she says.

Through this, the tech can determine an attack and goal the response by slowing down it and stopping it breaches do not escalate and become a problem. This is done with power of AI.

Preparing for the next big cyber threat

Living in a connected world has important implications for the cyber protection functions within our businesses and in home, thanks to our shifting relationships with technologies.

"Cyber security is not only laptops and servers anymore," explains Gustafsson. "Today I can see a smart TV plus a smart fish tank that's internet connected to modulate the temperature of this water, and it has all these non-traditional internet-connected apparatus which are expanding the danger surface which attackers can utilize and exploit."

Darktrace must be continuously innovating to stay up with those challenges so as to be able to confront the bad guys, something Gustafsson describes as a technological arms race.

"We are an organisation which has technology and innovation in its center and we have made enormous leaps and bounds but it's merely a matter of time ahead of the hackers of the world are minding these technology advances with respect to their own approach."

Web of Things devices, like the Amazon Echo, are starting up more security pain points in our homes

However, security is not just about strikes in the nation states and global hacking classes. Gustafsson states that one of the biggest issues in cyber protection is simply human error. "99 percent of this time we are showing companies [issues] during pitches they had been unaware of."

There was the time in which Darktrace was pitching to a law firm with a worker swipe card program. A good idea but it was:"Whenever someone swiped the drinks machine, all the private details from the swipe were moving into the beverages seller."

Darktrace managed to contact the seller and get it sorted right away, but that is a good example of an unintentional attack. It shows that the largest threats from the company may come from inside. "That was a consequence of the system not being set up in ways they thought it had been. They were not even conscious of it," she adds.

Life at the top

Gustafsson sets Darktrace's success down to the capacity to question the status quo. "From the beginning we challenged the idea that cyber security was all about keeping the bad guys out, directly through to the simple fact that we are talked about as a organisation that's directed by two women. In click over here , there's no reason why it wouldn't be."

This top-down choice does make it an anomaly amongst tech companies and it impacts the company culture.

"When you create a technician organisation that is gender agnostic, people thrive respective whether they're male or female," she says.

Yet, it's hard leading a company that is so spread out across the world and maintaining that company culture in 33 offices. Gustafsson admits she no longer knows the faces and names of Darktrace's workers, over 700 to become exact, due to its rapid growth.

"But I want to make sure that they continue to feel a part of this organisation. It's ensuring the culture is the same if you're operating in Cambridge or even Brazil.

And, she hopes that the more people will be invited to join the area. For anyone seeking to get to tech or security specifically, her advice would be to research maths or computer science.

"I would strongly urge anyone who wanted to explore the way to do it and never accept somebody saying they can't," she adds.