Like Businesses, Hackers are Using AI to Their Advantage

Artificial intelligence, also known as AI, is already used in certain industries, like cybersecurity and automation, but hackers have quickly found out that they too can leverage AI to their advantage. With cybercrime on the rise, it’s expected that AI will play a role in the cybersecurity landscape to come. Let’s take a closer look at some of these trends.

Deepfakes

The word “deepfake” comes from “deep learning” and “fake media,” an odd combination of words to be sure. Essentially, a deepfake is false imaging, audio, or video that can appear to be authentic on the surface without actually being so. Deepfakes can cause a lot of problems under the right circumstances. For example, someone could create a news article that reports on a deepfake image or video. Deepfakes generated by artificial intelligence can also be used in extortion schemes or misinformation campaigns.

Under the right circumstances, AI can generate realistic videos of well-known people, like celebrities, politicians, CEOs, and others, particularly when there is a lot of source material to call on. These videos can be so convincing that some cannot tell the difference, and you can imagine how much confusion that can cause.

AI-Supported Hacking Attacks

Just like how AI can support your average office worker during their day-to-day tasks, it can also support hackers in their hacking attempts, like breaking through a password or infiltrating a network. Through machine learning or AI, hackers can analyze and parse password sets, using this information to put together passwords with surprising accuracy. These systems can also adjust their approach based on how users change their passwords over time.

AI can also be used to automate hacking processes. These systems can find weak points in infrastructures and launch attacks against them, ultimately finding their way onto networks through these weak points. Even scarier is that these systems can automatically improve their functionality and learn from their experiences.

Human Impersonation and Social Engineering

AI can even impersonate human beings by imitating their online behaviors, a concept that is a bit unnerving. Automated bots can run fake accounts capable of most everyday online activities, like liking a post on Instagram, sharing a status update, creating tweets, etc. These bots can also be used in schemes to make money for the hacker.

AI systems are a serious threat when leveraged against unsuspecting organizations, and they could prove to be more troublesome in the future. If you want to ensure that your organization does not fall victim to hacking attacks, reach out to Walsh IT Group at (832) 295-1445.