Artificial intelligence offers great promise, and while many tech enthusiasts are enthusiastic about it, hackers are also looking to this technology to aid their illicit activities. The field of artificial intelligence is interesting, but it may also make us nervous. Therefore, how might AI support online criminals?
Social engineering
Every week, social engineering, a form of cybercrime, claims countless victims and is a big issue worldwide. In this technique, the victim is coerced into complying with the attacker's demands through manipulation, frequently without being aware that they are the target.
By creating the text that appears in fraudulent communications like phishing emails and SMS, AI could aid in social engineering attempts. It wouldn't be impossible, even with today's level of AI development, to instruct a chatbot to create a compelling or persuasive script, which the cybercriminal could then employ against their victims. People have taken notice of this threat and are already worried about the dangers that lie ahead.
In this way, by correcting typos and grammatical errors, AI might potentially assist in making hostile communications appear more formal and professional. Therefore, it might be advantageous for cybercriminals if they can write their social engineering content more clearly and effectively. Such errors are frequently described as potential indicators of malicious activity.
Analysing stolen data
Data is worth as much as gold. Sensitive information is currently regularly sold on dark web markets, and some dangerous actors are willing to pay a very high price for the information if it is sufficiently valuable.
But data must first be stolen in order for it to appear on these marketplaces. Small-scale data theft is undoubtedly possible, particularly when an attacker targets single victims. However, larger hacks may lead to the theft of sizable databases. The cybercriminal must now decide whatever information in this database is worthwhile.
A malicious actor would spend less time deciding what is worthwhile to sell or, on the other hand, directly exploit by hand if the process of identifying valuable information were to be expedited with AI. Since learning is the foundation of artificial intelligence, it might someday be simple to use an AI-powered tool to detect sensitive information that is valuable.
Malware writing
Some people would not be surprised to learn that malware can be created using artificial intelligence because this is a sophisticated form of technology. A combination of the words "malicious" and "software," malware refers to the various types of malicious software used in hacking.
Malware must first be written, though, in order to be used.
Cybercriminals aren't all skilled programmers; others just don't want to spend the time learning how to write new programmes. AI may prove useful in this situation.
It was discovered that ChatGPT might be used to create malware for nefarious activities in the early 2023. An AI infrastructure supports OpenAI's wildly popular ChatGPT. Despite the fact that this chatbot is being used by hackers, it can perform many important tasks.
In one particular instance, a user claimed in a forum for hackers that ChatGPT had been used to write a Python-based malware programme.
Writing malicious software could be efficiently automated with ChatGPT. This makes it easier for novice cybercriminals with limited technical knowledge to operate.
Instead of writing sophisticated code that poses serious hazards, ChatGPT (or at least its most recent version) is only capable of producing simple, occasionally problematic malware programmes. This does not preclude the employment of AI to create malicious software, either. Given that a modern AI chatbot is already capable of writing simple malicious programmes, it might not be long before we start to notice more heinous malware coming from AI systems.
Bottom line
Artificial intelligence has been and will continue to be abused by cybercriminals, as is the case with the majority of technological advancements. It's absolutely impossible to predict how hackers will be able to progress their attacks utilising this technology in the near future given that AI already has certain dubious skills. Cybersecurity companies may also use AI more frequently to combat similar threats, but only time will tell how this one develops.