The emergence of cyber dangers presents a serious threat to people, companies, and governments globally at a time when technical breakthroughs are the norm. The need to strengthen our digital defenses against an increasing flood of cyberattacks is highlighted by recent events. The cyber-world continually evolves, requiring a proactive response, from ransomware schemes to DDoS attacks.
1.SolarWinds Hack: A Silent IntruderThe recent cyberattack increase is a sobering reminder of how urgently better cybersecurity measures are needed. To keep ahead of the always-changing threat landscape, we must use cutting-edge technologies, modify security policies, and learn from these instances as we navigate the digital landscape. The lessons learned from these incidents highlight our shared need to protect our digital future.
The intersection of wargames and artificial intelligence (AI) has become a key subject in the constantly changing field of combat and technology. Experts are advocating for ethical monitoring to reduce potential hazards as nations use AI to improve military capabilities.
As technology advances quickly, governments all over the world are becoming increasingly concerned about artificial intelligence (AI) regulation. Two noteworthy recent breakthroughs in AI legislation have surfaced, providing insight into the measures governments are implementing to guarantee the proper advancement and application of AI technologies.
The first path is marked by the United States, where on October 30, 2023, President Joe Biden signed an executive order titled "The Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence." The order emphasizes the need for clear guidelines and ethical standards to govern AI applications. It acknowledges the transformative potential of AI while emphasizing the importance of addressing potential risks and ensuring public trust. The order establishes a comprehensive framework for the federal government's approach to AI, emphasizing collaboration between various agencies to promote innovation while safeguarding against misuse.
Meanwhile, the European Union has taken a proactive stance with the EU AI Act, the first regulation dedicated to artificial intelligence. Introduced on June 1, 2023, this regulation is a milestone in AI governance. It classifies AI systems into different risk categories and imposes strict requirements for high-risk applications, emphasizing transparency and accountability. The EU AI Act represents a concerted effort to balance innovation with the protection of fundamental rights, fostering a regulatory environment that aims to set a global standard for AI development.
Moreover, in the pursuit of responsible AI development, companies like Anthropic have also contributed to the discourse. They have released a document titled "Responsible Scaling Policy 1.0," which outlines their commitment to ethical considerations in the development and deployment of AI technologies. This document reflects the growing recognition within the tech industry of the need for self-regulation and ethical guidelines to prevent the unintended consequences of AI.
As the global community grapples with the complexities of AI regulation, it is evident that a nuanced approach is necessary. These regulatory frameworks strive to strike a balance between fostering innovation and addressing potential risks associated with AI. In the words of President Biden, "We must ensure that AI is developed and used responsibly, ethically, and with public trust." The EU AI Act echoes this sentiment, emphasizing the importance of human-centric AI that respects democratic values and fundamental rights.
A common commitment to maximizing AI's advantages while minimizing its risks is reflected in the way regulations surrounding the technology are developing. These legislative measures, which come from partnerships between groups and governments, pave the path for a future where AI is used responsibly and ethically, ensuring that technology advances humankind rather than working against it.
Bill Gates recently made a number of bold predictions about how artificial intelligence (AI) will change our lives in the next five years. These forecasts include four revolutionary ways that AI will change our lives. The tech billionaire highlights the significant influence artificial intelligence (AI) will have on many facets of our everyday lives and believes that these developments will completely transform the way humans interact with computers.
Gates envisions a future where AI becomes an integral part of our lives, changing the way we use computers fundamentally. According to him, AI will play a pivotal role in transforming the traditional computer interface. Instead of relying on conventional methods such as keyboards and mice, Gates predicts that AI will become the new interface, making interactions more intuitive and human-centric.
One of the key aspects highlighted by Gates is the widespread integration of AI-powered personal assistants into our daily routines. Gates suggests that every internet user will soon have access to an advanced personal assistant, driven by AI. This assistant is expected to streamline tasks, enhance productivity, and provide a more personalized experience tailored to individual needs.
Furthermore, Gates emphasizes the importance of developing humane AI. In collaboration with Humanes AI, a prominent player in ethical AI practices, Gates envisions AI systems that prioritize ethical considerations and respect human values. This approach aims to ensure that as AI becomes more prevalent, it does so in a way that is considerate of human concerns and values.
The transformative power of AI is not limited to personal assistants and interfaces. Gates also predicts a significant shift in healthcare, with AI playing a crucial role in early detection and personalized treatment plans. The ability of AI to analyze vast datasets quickly could revolutionize the medical field, leading to more accurate diagnoses and tailored healthcare solutions.
Bill Gates envisions a world in which artificial intelligence (AI) is smoothly incorporated into daily life, providing previously unheard-of conveniences and efficiencies, as we look to the future. These forecasts open up fascinating new possibilities, but they also bring up crucial questions about the moral ramifications of broad AI use. Gates' observations provide a fascinating look at the possible changes society may experience over the next five years as it rapidly moves toward an AI-driven future.
While AI has made significant strides in various areas, it is increasingly apparent that technology might be abused in the world of cybercrime. WormGPT has built-in safeguards to prevent its nefarious usage, in contrast to its helpful counterparts like OpenAI's ChatGPT, raising concerns about the potential destruction it could cause in the digital environment.
WormGPT, developed by anonymous creators is an AI chatbot, similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. However, the one aspect that differentiates it from other chatbots is: that it lacks the protective measures that prevent its exploitation. The conspicuous lack of safeguards has raised concerns among cybersecurity experts and researchers. Due to the diligence of Daniel Kelley, a former hacker and prominent cybersecurity business Slash Next, this malicious AI tool has been brought to the notice of the cybersecurity community. In the murky recesses of cybercrime sites, they found adverts for WormGPT, which revealed a lurking danger.
Apparently, hackers gain access to WormGPT via the dark web, further acquiring access to a web interface where they can enter commands and gain responses almost resembling the human language. This malware focuses mostly on business email compromise assaults and phishing emails, two types of cyberattacks that can have catastrophic results.
WormGPT aids hackers in crafting phishing emails, that could convince victims into taking actions that will compromise their security. The fabrication of persuading emails that appear to be from a company's CEO is a noteworthy example of this. These emails might demand payment from an employee for a fake invoice. WormGPT's sophisticated writing is more convincing and can mimic reliable people in a business email system since it draws from a large database of human-written information.
One of the major concerns regarding WormGPT among cybersecurity experts is its reach. Since the AI tool is readily available on the dark web, more and more threat actors are utilizing it for conducting malicious activities in cyberspace. Implying the AI tool suggests that far-reaching, large-scale attacks are on their way that could potentially affect more individuals, organizations and even state agencies.
The advent of WormGPT acts as a severe wake-up call for the IT sector and the larger cybersecurity community. While there is no denying that AI has advanced significantly, it has also created obstacles that have never before existed. While the designers of sophisticated AI systems like ChatGPT celebrate their achievements and widespread use, they also have a duty to address possible compromises of their innovations. WormGPT's lack of protections highlights how urgent it is to have strong ethical standards and safeguards for AI technology.
According to Ricardo Macieira, the general manager for Europe at Tools For Humanity, the company behind the Worldcoin project, the company is on a mission of “building the biggest financial and identity community” possible. The idea is that as they build this infrastructure, they will allow other third parties to use the technology.
Worldcoin’s iris-scanning technology has been met with both excitement and concern. On one hand, it offers a unique way to verify identity and enable instant cross-border financial transactions. On the other hand, there are concerns about privacy and the potential misuse of biometric data. Data watchdogs in Britain, France, and Germany have said they are looking into the project.
Despite these concerns, Worldcoin has already seen significant adoption. According to the company, 2.2 million people have signed up, mostly during a trial period over the last two years. The company has also raised $115 million from venture capital investors including Blockchain Capital, a16z crypto, Bain Capital Crypto, and Distributed Global in a funding round in May.
Worldcoin’s website mentions various possible applications for its technology, including distinguishing humans from artificial intelligence, enabling “global democratic processes,” and showing a “potential path” to universal basic income. However, these outcomes are not guaranteed.
Most people interviewed by Reuters at sign-up sites in Britain, India, and Japan last week said they were joining to receive the 25 free Worldcoin tokens the company says verified users can claim. Macieira said that Worldcoin would continue rolling out operations in Europe, Latin America, Africa, and “all the parts of the world that will accept us.”
Companies could pay Worldcoin to use its digital identity system. For example, if a coffee shop wants to give everyone one free coffee, then Worldcoin’s technology could be used to ensure that people do not claim more than one coffee without the shop needing to gather personal data.
It remains to be seen how Worldcoin’s technology will be received by governments and businesses. The potential benefits are clear: a secure way to verify identity without the need for personal data. However, there are also concerns about privacy and security that must be addressed.
Worldcoin’s plans to expand globally and offer its iris-scanning and identity-verification technology to other organizations is an exciting development in the world of cryptocurrency and digital identity. While there are concerns about privacy and security that must be addressed, the potential benefits of this technology are clear. It will be interesting to see how governments and businesses respond to this new offering from Worldcoin.
The security researchers further scrutinized the data of the million enterprise users worldwide and emphasized the growing trend of generative AI app usage, which witnessed an increase of 22.5% over the past two months. This consequently escalated the chance of sensitive data being exposed.
Apparently, organizations with 10,000 (or more) users are utilizing some or the other AI tool – with an average of 5 apps – on a regular basis. Compared to other generative AI apps, ChatGPT has more than 8 times as many daily active users. Within the next seven months, it is anticipated that the number of people accessing AI apps will double at the present growth pace.
The AI app with the swiftest growth in installations over the last two months was Google Bard, which is presently attracting new users at a rate of 7.1% per week versus 1.6% for ChatGPT. Although the generative AI app market is expected to considerably grow before then, with many more apps in development, Google Bard is not projected to overtake ChatGPT for more than a year at the current rate.
Besides the intellectual property (excluding source code) and personally identifiable information, other sensitive data communicated via ChatGPT includes regulated data, such as financial and healthcare data, as well as passwords and keys, which are typically included in source code.
According to Ray Canzanese, Threat Research Director, Netskope Threat Lab, “It is inevitable that some users will upload proprietary source code or text containing sensitive data to AI tools that promise to help with programming or writing[…]Therefore, it is imperative for organizations to place controls around AI to prevent sensitive data leaks. Controls that empower users to reap the benefits of AI, streamlining operations and improving efficiency, while mitigating the risks are the ultimate goal. The most effective controls that we see are a combination of DLP and interactive user coaching.”
As opportunistic attackers look to profit from the popularity of artificial intelligence, Netskope Threat Labs is presently monitoring ChatGPT proxies and more than 1,000 malicious URLs and domains, including several phishing attacks, malware distribution campaigns, spam, and fraud websites.
While blocking access to AI content and apps may seem like a good idea, it is indeed a short-term solution.
James Robinson, Deputy CISO at Netskope, said “As security leaders, we cannot simply decide to ban applications without impacting on user experience and productivity[…]Organizations should focus on evolving their workforce awareness and data policies to meet the needs of employees using AI products productively. There is a good path to safe enablement of generative AI with the right tools and the right mindset.”
Organizations must focus their strategy on finding acceptable applications and implementing controls that enable users to use them to their maximum potential while protecting the business from dangers in order to enable the safe adoption of AI apps. For protection against assaults, such a strategy should incorporate domain filtering, URL filtering, and content inspection.
Here, we are listing some more safety measures to secure data and use AI tools with safety:
Here, we are discussing some of these AI-powered tools, that have proved to be a leading attribute for growing a business:
Folk is a highly developed CRM (Customer Relationship Management) developed to work for its users, with the use of its AI-powered setup. Some of its prominent features include its lightweight and customizability. Due to its automation capabilities, it frees its user from any manual task, which allows them to shift their focus to its main goal: building customer and business relationships.
Folk's AI-based smart outreach feature tracks results efficiently, allowing users to know when and how to reach out.
It is a SaaS platform that deploys algorithms to record and analyse meetings and integrate the findings into useful information.
Cape Privacy introduced its AI tool - CapeChat - the platform focuses on privacy, and is powered by ChatGPT.
CapeChat is used to encrypt and redact sensitive data, in order to ensure user privacy while using AI language models.
Cape also provides secure enclaves for processing sensitive data and protecting intellectual property.
Drafthorse AI is a programmatic SEO writer used by brands and niche site owners. With its capacity to support over 100 languages, Drafthorse AI allows one to draft SEO-optimized articles in minutes.
It is an easy-to-use AI tool with a user-friendly interface that allows users to import target keywords, generate content, and export it in various formats.
Uizard includes Autodesigner, an AI-based designing and ideation tool that helps users to generate creative mobile apps, websites, and more.
A user with minimal or no designing experience can easily use the UI design, as it generates mockups from text prompts, scans screenshots, and offers drag-and-drop UI components.
With the help of this tool, users may quickly transition from an idea to a clickable prototype.
ChatGPT has assisted millions of working professionals, students, and experts worldwide in managing their productivity, maximizing creativity, and increasing efficiency. Surprisingly, ChatGPT is just the beginning. Many more AI technologies are as efficient or better than ChatGPT regarding specialized tasks.
Here is the list of the top ten tools that are an alternative to ChatGPT
Krisp AI: Since the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns, working professionals worldwide have embraced virtual interactions. While Zoom meetings have become a norm, there has yet to be any significant breakthrough in ensuring crisp and clutter-free audio-visual communication.
Promptbox: Tools backed by artificial intelligence heavily rely on user input to generate content or perform specific tasks. The inputs are largely text prompts, and it is essential to frame your prompts to ensure that you get the correct output. Now that there are hundreds of conversational chatbots and their uses are increasing rapidly, having all your prompts in one place is a great way to make the most of AI.
Monica: Your Personal AI Assistant - Monica is an AI tool that acts as your assistant. It can help you manage your schedule, set reminders, and even make reservations. With Monica, you can delegate tasks and focus on more important things.
Glasp: Social Highlighting for Efficient Research - Glasp is an AI tool that helps with research by allowing you to highlight and save important information from web pages and documents. With Glasp, you can easily keep track of the information you need and share it with others.
Compose AI: Overcoming Writer’s Block - Compose AI is an AI tool that helps overcome writer’s block by suggesting ideas and generating content based on your prompts. With Compose AI, you can get past the blank page and start writing.
Eesel: Organize Work Documents with Ease - Eesel is an AI tool that helps you easily organize your work documents. Using AI, Eesel categorizes and sorts your documents, making it easy to find what you need.
Docus AI: AI Tool for Health Guidance - Docus AI is an AI tool that provides health guidance by using AI to analyze your symptoms and provide personalized recommendations. With Docus AI, you can get the information you need to make informed decisions about your health.
CapeChat: Secure Document Interaction with AI - CapeChat is an AI tool that allows for secure document interaction with AI. Using encryption and other security measures, CapeChat ensures your documents are safe and secure.
Goodmeetings: AI-Curated Meeting Summaries - Goodmeetings is an AI tool that provides AI-curated meeting summaries to help you keep track of important information discussed during meetings. Good meetings allow you to quickly review what was discussed and follow up on action items.
Zupyak: AI-Powered SEO Content Generation - Zupyak is an AI tool that uses AI to generate SEO-optimized content for your website or blog. With Zupyak, you can improve your search engine rankings and attract more visitors to your site.
Recently, researchers from Check Point Software discovered that ChatGPT could be utilized to create phishing emails. When combined with Codex, a natural language-to-code system by OpenAI, ChatGPT can develop and disseminate malicious code.
According to Sergey Shykevich, threat intelligence group manager at Check Point Software, “Our researchers built a full malware infection chain starting from a phishing email to an Excel document that has malicious VBA [Visual Basic for Application] code. We can compile the whole malware to an executable file and run it in a machine.”
He adds that ChatGPT primarily produces “much better and more convincing phishing and impersonation emails than real phishing emails we see in the wild now.”
In regards to the same, Lorrie Faith Cranor, director and Bosch Distinguished Professor of the CyLab Security and Privacy Institute and FORE Systems Professor of computer science and of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University says, “I haven’t tried using ChatGPT to generate code, but I’ve seen some examples from others who have. It generates code that is not all that sophisticated, but some of it is actually runnable code[…]There are other AI tools out there for generating code, and they are all getting better every day. ChatGPT is probably better right now at generating text for humans, and may be particularly well suited for generating things like realistic spoofed emails.”
Moreover, the researchers have also discovered hackers that create malicious tools like info-stealers and dark web markets using ChatGPT.
Cranor says “I think to use these [AI] tools successfully today requires some technical knowledge, but I expect over time it will become easier to take the output from these tools and launch an attack[…]So while it is not clear that what the tools can do today is much more worrisome than human-developed tools that are widely distributed online, it won’t be long before these tools are developing more sophisticated attacks, with the ability to quickly generate large numbers of variants.”
Furthermore, complications could as well arise from the inability to detect whether the code was created by utilizing ChatGPT. “There is no good way to pinpoint that a specific software, malware, or even phishing email was written by ChatGPT because there is no signature,” says Shykevich.
One of the methods OpenAI is opting for is to “watermark” the output of GPT models, which could later be used to determine whether they are created by AI or humans.
In order to safeguard companies and individuals from these AI-generated threats, Shykevich advises using appropriate cybersecurity measures. While the current safeguards are still in effect, it is critical to keep upgrading and bolstering their application.
“Researchers are also working on ways to use AI to discover code vulnerabilities and detect attacks[…]Hopefully, advances on the defensive side will be able to keep up with advances on the attacker side, but that remains to be seen,” says Cranor.
While ChatGPT and other AI-backed systems have the potential to fundamentally alter how individuals interact with technology, they also carry some risk, particularly when used in dangerous ways.
“ChatGPT is a great technology and has the potential to democratize AI,” adds Shykevich. “AI was kind of a buzzy feature that only computer science or algorithmic specialists understood. Now, people who aren’t tech-savvy are starting to understand what AI is and trying to adopt it in their day-to-day. But the biggest question, is how would you use it—and for what purposes?”