Artificial intelligence is a double-edged sword

AI technologies have extensively been applied in cybersecurity solutions, but hackers are also leveraging them to develop intelligent malware programs and execute stealth attacks. Artificial intelligence is a double-edged sword that can be used as a security solution or as a weapon by hackers. AI entails developing programs and systems capable of exhibiting traits associated with human behaviors. The characteristics include the ability to adapt to a particular environment or to intelligently respond to a situation.

Companies and governments throughout the world are beginning to make use of AI tools for the effectiveness and efficiency gains they present. Governments and companies must make a myriad of decisions throughout the course of completing their missions and objectives. AI tools allow them to integrate and analyze large amounts of data to improve their decision-making. AI tools are used to make determinations about loan applications, to execute stock trades based on market trends, and to route packages. Organizations use AI to model and monitor the behavior of system users. The purpose of monitoring the interactions between a system and users is to identify takeover attacks.

These are attacks where malicious employees steal login details of other users and use their accounts to commit different types of cybercrimes. AI learns the user activities over time such that it considers unusual behavior as anomalies. Whenever a different user uses the account, AI-powered systems can detect the unusual activity patterns and respond either by locking out the user or immediately alert system admins of the changes.

AI is being used by law enforcement for surveillance, the judicial system for risk assessment, finance companies to detect fraud, social media to determine your likes, and search engines to deliver the best results. Security experts have conducted a lot of research to harness the capabilities of AI and incorporate them into security solutions. AI-enabled security tools and products can detect and respond to cybersecurity incidents with minimal or zero input from humans. AI applications in cybersecurity have proved to be highly useful. Experts say, Antivirus tools with AI capabilities detect network or system anomalies by identifying programs exhibiting unusual behavior. Malware programs are coded to execute functions that differ from standard computer operations.

AI antiviruses leverage machine learning tactics to learn how legitimate programs interact with an operating system. As such, whenever malware programs are introduced to a network, AI antivirus solutions can immediately detect them and block them from accessing system resources. This contrasts from signature-based traditional antiviruses which scans a signature database to determine whether a program is a security threat. Hackers are turning to AI and using it to weaponize malware and attacks to counter the advancements made in cybersecurity solutions.

Cybercriminals prefer email communication as the primary delivery technique for malicious links and attachments used to conduct phishing attacks. Symantec states that 54.6 percent of received email messages are spam and may contain malicious attachments or links. Anti-phishing emails with AI and machine learning capabilities are highly effective in identifying phishing emails.