In the ever-evolving tech world, one undeniable truth is that - artificial intelligence (AI) is here to stay.
With the constant advancement and widespread adoption of AI-powered applications by businesses and individuals worldwide, it has become important to acknowledge the wide-range of cybersecurity threats that comes with AI revolution in the modern era.This is due to the sheer power of AI — to lots of malevolent actors, AI is simply a tool to cause more havoc and harm to their targets.
However, for businesses, AI also provides a powerful opportunity to get ahead of those same people.That’s why through this article, we take you through everything that you need to know about AI and cybersecurity.
The rise of AI in 2023
Recently, artificial intelligence (AI) has taken the world by storm. With new AI technologies like ChatGPT and Midjourney providing revolutionary services with a simple entry of a prompt, there’s no wonder that the world is enamoured by the ever-growing capabilities that AI has displayed.
With this, the question around the ethics and morality of AI arises. Particularly related to security and business, AI has bestowed substantial power upon malicious threats, enabling them to orchestrate chaos and damage for both individuals and businesses.
This is why knowing the threats that you could face — and how you can utilise AI to reduce your vulnerability to them — is so important for any organisation.
AI in cybersecurity
Threats
Generative AI phishing attacks
A phishing attack aims to create someone’s malicious appear as though they are a trusted entity to deceive individuals and obtain their credentials. This attack is a very common social engineering attack, and while quite transparent now, can be very effective if the victim is unprepared.
AI essentially helps speed up this process and make it more realistic and effective. These new attacks are much harder to spot at face value than the phishing attacks of old, and AI lets them specifically target demographics of people.
AI-powered malware attacks
AI-powered malware is being trained using machine learning to become more real and effective than conventional malware. The malware used is intelligent — effectively being able to think for itself instead of relying on a preprogrammed directive.
This means that AI-powered malware is now smarter and more effective, and will specifically target and spread to victims far more easily.
AI dataset poisoning
AI dataset poisoning is a way to corrupt the training and output of an AI. By poisoning the data that it uses to train, it’s possible to change an AI to become malicious and essentially teach it to do things that are at best malicious, and at worse massively destructive.
This is because every AI progressively learns from some kind of dataset. It takes the data given to it and forms intelligence based on it, meaning that corrupting that process can have massive repercussions down the line.
Opportunities
AI-based malware detection and response
Just as AI can power up malware, it can also power up malware response tools and systems to be faster and more accurate.
By using AI-powered malware detection tools, you can spot potential threats and malware faster and stamp it out far more efficiently, as an AI will be able to adaptively monitor and deal with malware far more effectively than a human or a simple human-coded programme.
Avoid human errors
A lot of breaches and hazards come from human error, due to the fact that humans simply make mistakes sometimes.
If programmed correctly, artificial intelligence is unable to make a mistake due to being trained purely on a dataset without letting emotion, fatigue, or any other human trait affect the output.
By identifying weaknesses in your organisation that can be automated with ease, you can easily mitigate the risk of human error using a well-trained artificial intelligence model dedicated to the tasks required.
Combat the cybersecurity skills shortage
With the advancement in technology, the demand for cybersecurity professionals has skyrocketed.
However, there is a major skills shortage in these areas due to the lack of supply to meet that demand — with how new and quickly technology is evolving, not a lot of people are trained or knowledgeable enough about newer technologies and threats.
With a large dataset that can pull from anywhere, AI helps combat this — it can teach you anything you need to know about cybersecurity and help you strategise and mobilise the security measures that will be most effective for your organisation with ease.
Benefit from larger datasets
Utilising new and advanced AI technologies means that you have a larger data pool, due to the sheer power and knowledge of newer AI models.
This means that you have access to a larger dataset right at your fingertips — which can have benefits for machine learning and AI applications throughout your organisation. A larger dataset means finding trends is both easier and more effective.
This has benefits throughout your organisation but, regarding cybersecurity specifically, means that you’ll be able to detect threats more quickly and easily by spotting patterns and trends, and have a much smarter intelligence tool available for cybersecurity.
Want to explore more?
With the increasing advancement of AI technology, there are multiple consequences and opportunities for businesses to consider. Where before, threats simply existed within the realm of human intelligence and possibility, AI is rapidly making it easier for new attacks to cause damage to organisations — and for new ways to stop them.
If you’re looking for new ways to implement AI into your business and ensure that your cybersecurity strategy is completely futureproof, get in touch with us today. Our industry experts can assist your business to reduce the risks and issues of an AI-powered cybersecurity world – and design effective strategies that suits to your business specifically.
Want to learn more? Watch our on-demand webinar where experts discuss the latest developments in generative AI technology, showcase applications and use cases, and highlight key areas to focus on when preparing for its opportunities and challenges. Register now