IBM Watson turns its attention to fighting hackers.

BIG BLUE IBM has announced a new project called IBM Watson for Cyber Security that aims to help companies tackle cyber crime using cognitive computing power. 40 firms are planning to roll out IBM Watson for Cyber Security in a beta trial that will see the company's cognitive computing technology applied to computer and network security. The companies include Sun Life Financial, Japanese banking giant SMBC, University of New Brunswick, University of Rochester Medical Center, Scana Corporation and Avnet. Watson for Cyber Security uses intelligent technologies such as machine learning and natural language processing to try and help security specialists to identify the potential threats from the avalanche of log and other data that computer systems and network infrastructure throw off.