Over the past few years, artificial intelligence (AI) has moved from being a buzzword to something we interact with daily, whether its automated messages, online chatbots, or tools to help us make decisions quicker. Given this, it\u2019s no surprise that AI has also made its way into cybersecurity, helping organisations just like yours recognise and respond to potential cyber threats and stay one step ahead of criminals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there\u2019s another side of the story that we can\u2019t ignore. Just as businesses are utilising AI to improve their cyber resilience, criminals are finding more and more new ways to use AI to enhance their attacks. The same tools that help us automate and streamline our cybersecurity processes can also be turned against us if we\u2019re not careful, making cyber attacks more sophisticated, targeted, and difficult to detect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, how exactly is the use of artificial intelligence (AI) influencing cyber attacks?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve all had an obvious phishing email, full of grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and sent from a suspicious-looking domain. AI has changed this. Now, criminals can use AI to generate realistic, personalised messages that mimic real communications from colleagues, suppliers or customers. AI allows criminals to create convincing phishing emails in a matter of seconds, making them harder to detect, especially for busy employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Deepfake videos aren\u2019t anything new, they\u2019ve been around online for a long time \u2013 some are amusing, but most are very unsettling. In the wrong hands, this technology can be extremely dangerous. Criminals are already using deepfake audio and video to impersonate CEOs and other high-profile individuals to trick employees into transferring money or sharing sensitive data. With voice cloning tools, it\u2019s now possible for criminals to generate audio that sounds like someone you know and make \u201cvishing\u201d phone calls to staff members, again to trick them into handing over private information. This highlights just how easy it is for AI to convincingly clone a voice \u2014 as demonstrated in Safe Phrases: Stay safe against AI voice cloning – YouTube<\/u><\/a>. But it also shows how something as simple as a pre-agreed plan can stop a scam in its tracks. On a more optimistic note, AI isn\u2019t just being used by criminals \u2014 it\u2019s also being used to fight back. In AI Scambaiters: O2 creates AI Granny to waste scammers\u2019 time – YouTube<\/u><\/a>, we see how technology can turn the tables on fraudsters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AI can be trained to scan a company\u2019s systems for vulnerabilities, just like cyber professionals would do in order to help improve the company\u2019s cyber security. Criminals are now using similar tactics to exploit your system\u2019s vulnerabilities. Criminals can use AI to automate the process of finding weak spots in software or networks at an incredibly fast rate. This means they can launch attacks quickly, often before businesses have had a chance to spot the vulnerabilities themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AI is being used to adapt malware to avoid detection. This isn\u2019t your standard malware virus, it\u2019s a code that learns and changes to bypass firewalls and antivirus tools. Some versions of this malware can stay in a business\u2019 systems until certain conditions arise, such as a specific location, time, or configuration, making them much harder to detect and remove.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This may sound a bit overwhelming, but here\u2019s the good news: just as criminals are using AI to enhance their cyber attacks, we can use it to enhance our defences too. We work with businesses across the South East region to help them understand these threats and build a strong cyber resilience strategy to protect themselves. Here are a few simple yet crucial steps that we recommend every business should be implementing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n By understanding how criminals use AI, we can better prepare for the risks and protect the people, systems, and data that our business relies on every day. If you\u2019re not sure where to start or just want an expert to have a look over your current cyber security protocols, then join the SECRC today and our team will be happy to help you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Over the past few years, artificial intelligence (AI) has moved from being a buzzword to something we interact with daily, whether its automated messages, online…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crcnetwork-cfkr6.projectbeta.co.uk\/southeastcrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crcnetwork-cfkr6.projectbeta.co.uk\/southeastcrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crcnetwork-cfkr6.projectbeta.co.uk\/southeastcrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crcnetwork-cfkr6.projectbeta.co.uk\/southeastcrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crcnetwork-cfkr6.projectbeta.co.uk\/southeastcrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/crcnetwork-cfkr6.projectbeta.co.uk\/southeastcrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206,"href":"https:\/\/crcnetwork-cfkr6.projectbeta.co.uk\/southeastcrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions\/206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crcnetwork-cfkr6.projectbeta.co.uk\/southeastcrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crcnetwork-cfkr6.projectbeta.co.uk\/southeastcrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crcnetwork-cfkr6.projectbeta.co.uk\/southeastcrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}3: Automated Vulnerability Scanning<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
4: Evolving Malware<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
But it\u2019s not all bad news\u2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n