A phishing attack used to be nothing more than a generic and badly phrased email blasted out to as many people as possible, in the hope that someone would click on a link and hand over some relevant credentials, which the hacker might be able to use to get access to something valuable. With cybercriminals adapting to the use of AI to help shape their messages, cybersecurity professionals are seeing a surge in phishing attacks, paired with great improvements in the quality of the pitches, according to an article in The Washington Post. Rather than these simple messages, those in security are seeing detailed requests, packed with target specific information, and multiple vectors being used to make the phishing attacks seem more authentic, with blends of emails, texts, and even voice being used to convince people to hand over information.
And while cybercriminals had been attempting to improve their attacks before the wide availability of AI, its sudden wide availability has resulted in a rapid step forward in quality. Says Deepen Desai, CISO and head of research for Zscaler, to The Washington Post about the use of AI, “It’s going to be simple questions that leverage this: ‘Show me the last seven interviews from Jay. Make a transcript. Find me five people connected to Jay in the finance department.’ And boom, let’s make a voice call.”
Even outside of phishing, AI is looking to be a game changer for cybercriminals. Says Robert Hansen, deputy chief technology officer at tenable, to The Washington Post of the ease with which AI can boost a person’s ability to generate effective code, “You will be able to say, ‘just tell me how to break into a system,’ and it will say, ‘here’s 10 paths in’. They are just going to get in. It’ll be a very different world.”
Source:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/05/11/hacking-ai-cybersecurity-future/
