AI is still a fairly new concept for businesses, and that’s something that’s completely true. However, while everyone is embracing this (and they should), you still need to be on your guard. Actually, if you’re a business owner, you might especially want to be on guard. There’s actually a new problem that’s creeping up recently, and that’s scams that specifically use AI. Yes, you read that right; it’s falling into traps, very elaborate traps that look very believable due to the polish of AI, but it’s just that, it’s a scam.
Cybercriminals are leveraging the capabilities of AI to craft sophisticated attacks that pose a significant threat to business IT security. You wouldn’t even know it, and that’s what makes this so scary! While businesses commonly face regular IT issues, you’d probably never think that IT services could actually help out with AI scams, right? Well, they can! Your IT team can entirely diverge this whole problem. So, here’s exactly how!
Robust Email System
Remember those old-fashioned phishing emails that would circulate? Well, they’re still there, and they still exist. But with AI, they are far more elaborate now. Now, with the integration of AI, scams have become more difficult to detect. AI algorithms can analyse vast datasets to personalise phishing emails, making them highly convincing. These messages often mimic the communication style of trusted sources within the organisation, tricking employees into divulging sensitive information or unwittingly executing malicious actions.
Multi-Step Verification Process
Do you know how 2-step authentication is common nowadays for most systems and accounts? To a degree, that might not be enough, especially if multiple humans are in the mix. Specifically, deepfakes are becoming a major issue when it comes to this. Sure, social engineering has been around, but this is far beyond social engineering.
Cybercriminals can use deepfakes to create convincing audio or video impersonations of executives or colleagues. In the context of business email compromise, criminals might even be able to manipulate these deepfakes to instruct employees to transfer funds, disclose confidential information, or perform other harmful actions. Ai-voices are common nowadays; it’s easy to replicate voices, and using photos of employees for deepfakes is becoming common, too.
So IT departments are not only training staff, but it’s also about multiple verification steps, like fingerprints (or other biometrics), as well as having a secret code. Even regular people who don’t work or run businesses need to do this, too, because these deepfakes are scamming families (like the elderly) as well.
End-Point Protection Solutions
It’s really scary to think, but malware is getting smarter. It’s not even just that; AI can easily find exploits within seconds, too. You can expect that machine learning algorithms enable malware to evolve and adapt to security measures, making it challenging for traditional antivirus software to keep up. Seriously, not even the top-of-the-line software can fight this.
Basically, AI-driven attacks can learn from defensive mechanisms and adjust their strategies accordingly, allowing them to bypass conventional security measures. Your IT department is going to constantly focus on patching up the software and doing everything else to make sure that AI malware doesn’t attack (or learn) what to do.