AI and Its Impact on Cybersecurity
The world has witnessed an explosive growth in the use of artificial intelligence (AI). AI helps optimize processes, improve customer interactions, and extract valuable insights from vast amounts of data. Examples include the generation of text, audio and video, or the analysis of MRI images to support medical specialists. However, the use of AI also has a significant impact on cybersecurity. As a result, organizations must also remain vigilant about the new security challenges that it introduces.
The world has witnessed an explosive growth in the use of artificial intelligence (AI)
Use of Public AI Services
The use of public AI services can significantly affect an organization’s ability to maintain confidentially of sensitive data. Consider a situation where an employee uses a public GenAI service and shares privacy-sensitive data. It has implications on compliancy regulations like GDPR.
While raising awareness is essential, it is equally important to enforce technical safeguards. A Zero Trust model is a prudent approach to restricting which AI services employees can access. Additionally, it is necessary to monitor the data shared with public AI services and ensure oversight of the AI prompts used by users.
AI in Enterprise Applications
When deploying AI in enterprise applications specific security measures must be taken, IT infrastructure security measures remain essential. A basic principle is ensuring control over the prompts issued to AI models. This prevents the unintentional release of information that should remain confidential or the generation of content that is illegal or unethical. Additionally, there must be oversight over the data that is added into AI models to avoid output in ways that could lead an organization to make faulty decisions.
AI as a Tool for Attacks
Hackers are increasingly using AI to refine their attacks, making them more effective while reducing effort. A notable example is phishing. AI can enable personalized phishing attacks by analyzing data from social media and other sources. For example, a hacker could craft a message that aligns with your specific interests and activities. With deepfake technology, hackers can create videos or audio recordings that are so convincing, even vigilant employees might be fooled.
AI is also a tool to automate and enhance attacks. For example, malware can continually adapt its code to evade detection. Moreover, hackers can use AI to assess the behavior of security measures and identify possible points of entry.
How AI Can Improve Cybersecurity
Since attackers continually evolve their methods, detecting anomalous behaviour is vital. AI excels at analysing enormous datasets to identify these anomalies. AI can predict potential attack scenario’s, making it clear which attack routes are feasible and initiate preventive measures before this scenario is misused, which improves the cyber resilience.
Since attackers continually evolve their methods, detecting anomalous behaviour is vital.
AI assists professionals in decision making by offering fast detailed analyses and recommendations. For instance, AI can explain the context of a security incidents and risks and advice how to follow-up and improve the security posture, which saves time and a faster time to respond.
Now and in the Future
While AI introduces new possibilities and security challenges as well. AI remains an indispensable tool for security professionals, helping them operate more efficiently in an increasingly complex digital landscape where both the volume, reduced time to “attack” and sophistication of attacks continue to rise.