Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the shape of technology. Cyberattacks are a real threat to businesses and the average person alike. While resource-intensive hacks of the past were designated solely to businesses due to profitability, AI allows for more wide-scale attacks on individuals.
We've seen an uptick in attacks as a cybersecurity company in Miami since AI has become more prevalent.
How AI is Increasing the Risk of Cyberattacks
Anyone can go on Bard, ChatGPT or similar platforms and prompt it to create malware for them. While hackers of the past had to use one of the following, now anyone can create malicious scripts:
- Access to pre-created malware
- Development skills
AI allows more would-be hackers the opportunity to delve into malware and increase hacking attempts against individuals. However, this is just the start of AI and how it relates to cyberattacks.
We're likely to see an increase in:
Phishing Attacks
Phishing is a major issue that is only going to become worse. Over 1% of all emails have malicious intent. You can likely open your inbox, go to the spam folder and find dozens of attempts to steal your information.
Your dear Aunt Suzy (who doesn’t exist) may be asking for money or you might even receive a fake invoice for something you never purchased. Higher-end attacks may use social engineering to create a fake persona of your bank account manager that is 100% spot-on and realistic.
While in the past there were red flags, such as poor grammar and wording, AI allows anyone to:
- Create very compelling emails
- Mimick language syntax with 100% accuracy
- Add an even higher level of personalization to phishing emails
Automated Attacks
AI can be instructed to launch wide-scale attacks on websites and businesses with less manual input from hackers. Multi-level security systems must be put in place to help identify these robust attacks and prevent:
- Data theft
- DDoS attacks
- Etc.
Rapid Data Analysis from Breaches
Sifting through large databases of potentially millions of rows is a complex task that anyone can now attempt, thanks to AI. Artificial intelligence can crunch numbers and data faster than humans, and now, with simple prompts, anyone can work through large databases for data breaches.
Data patterns can be sorted and analyzed to allow hackers to:
- Identify data weaknesses
- Extract important data about you
- Use data in more advanced attacks
Hackers can use these massive data troves to create an in-depth profile on you and then use it for phishing or more advanced attacks.
Malware Morphing
Anti-virus and anti-malware solutions will need to be more sophisticated, as AI injection into malware will allow malicious software to adapt to detection behaviors to avoid detection. Protecting against viruses and malware will become increasingly challenging.
In the future, there’s going to need to be a rapid advancement in detection algorithms or a period where malware makes a massive resurgence.
AI will allow more hackers to launch attacks, but there’s hope for increased security that relies on AI, too. Businesses utilizing artificial intelligence will be able to create countermeasures against attacks faster and help thwart attacks with automated network analysis.