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Cybercriminals use AI, your business should as well

Whether we wanted it or not, artificial intelligence has already infiltrated so much of our lives whether it be finding the fastest route to work or touching up a photo, you likely come into contact with AI on a daily basis.

Of course, artificial intelligence can take several forms, seven in fact, but today we want to look at how artificial intelligence can be harmful to a business.

Just like we use AI to save ourselves some time, so do cybercriminals.

“Hacking into a network used to take months. But with AI and machine learning (ML) technologies on their side, cybercriminals can see this time span reduced to a matter of days. As more AI-enhanced attacks are orchestrated, the techniques used in these events become increasingly available and inexpensive for more and more cybercriminals,” explains chief of security insights and global threat alliances at FortiGuard Labs, Derek Manky.

Essentially, just like there is a marketplace for legitimate applications, there is a market for malicious applications which simplify the process of mapping a network, searching for vulnerabilities and even launching an attack.

Bringing a pin to a gunfight

This isn’t some future in the distance we should be preparing for, in fact there is a strong possibility businesses are already having to defend against AI attacks.

Earlier this year MIT Technology Review and Darktrace surveyed 300 C-suite execs about the cyberthreats they are up against. As many as 96 percent of survey respondents said they are already defending against attacks that use AI.

This presents a rather serious problem – security teams aren’t prepared.

“A skills gap exists in the cybersecurity sector, with security leaders often struggling to bring qualified staff on board. AI-driven security experts, in particular, are even harder to come by,” says Manky.

Further compounding the issue is the fact that advancements in AI are marching along unabated. So an expert today might not be an expert in a year.

“Organisations are now facing attacks that leverage self-learning technologies that can quickly find vulnerabilities, select or adapt malware, and actively fight off the security efforts that have been put in place to stop them. And when using AI alongside emerging attack methods, bad actors will gain the ability to break down an attack into its functional elements. These elements can then be assigned to various members of a swarm to enable interactive communications to accelerate the speed of an attack,” Manky adds.

So how do companies and security teams address this? Learn from your enemy of course.

“When working to defend against these AI-enhanced attack strategies, security teams must embrace a ‘fighting fire with fire’ approach. By understanding how cybercriminals find their success and taking a few pages from their playbooks, security leaders can redesign their strategies in order to level the playing field,” says Manky.

To be clear, we’re not encouraging you to head to a dark web marketplace to pick up some malicious software but rather to make use of legitimate applications to improve your security.

For example, using AI to map out your network and evaluate vulnerabilities, especially if your network and solutions are heavily siloed or spread across multiple locations.

“A security strategy that uses AI-enhanced technologies is vital in defending against cybercriminals, especially as networks and the attacks against them grow more complex and sophisticated,” Manky concludes.

[Image –  CC 0 Pixabay]

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