Week 4 - Out of the security frying pan, into the AI fire

     Currently we find ourselves embroiled in a security arms race which has now been exacerbated by the advent of AI. AI is and has been the proverbial “Paul Revere” of the tech boom. For decades security experts have shouted from the mountain top, “AI is coming, AI is coming.” Well guess what? AI is here and the possibilities of what it can do, good or bad, is frightening for lack of a better word. But not all experts share optimistic views regarding AI but they can all agree that the effect it will have on security will be one with long lasting repercussions.

     Make not mistake about it, cybercriminals will eventually be able to yield AI in nefarious ways which we have not yet envisioned. The only problem? The timeline. Security experts interviewed believe that this activity should be occurring now while others think that we will see AI-based attacks in 3-5 years.

      Chairman of the Delphi Group and advisor to Wasabi Technologies, Tom Koulopoulos says that within three years we will see “AI used to automate highly personalized attacks that use a combination of behavioral data and patterns of online interaction to hyper-target individuals” (Finnie, 2018). And in case you are curios like I, hyper-targeting refers to the ability to deliver advertising content to specify interest-based segments in a network. I felt like I had to explain that word as I had not heard that before myself. The example cited is one where a target receives an email based on interactions that the target has had. For example, imaging receiving an email like this:

“Hey, it was great seeing you at Starbucks! I know you’re interested in traveling to the Mediterranean since your most recent trip to Crete last summer. You might want to check out this offer I came across…” Could you imagine the implications of an AI boosted phishing attack such as this one!? Tom says that an attack of this nature merely “scratches the surface” in relation to other types of attacks that are possible.

References

Finnie, S. (2018, October 30). Cyber threats fueled by AI: Security's next big challenge. Retrieved from www.csoonline.com at: https://www.csoonline.com/article/3315740/security-awareness/cyber-threats-fueled-by-ai-securitys-next-big-challenge.html