It should come as no surprise, but over the last year, artificial intelligence has taken the world by storm.
This has ranged from helping doctors better organise their files all the way to being used by hackers to develop malware and more sophisticated online cyber-attacks. For small business owners, or even large corporations, that latter is incredibly concerning and has led to a boon in the cybersecurity industry.
Of course, many business owners want to know what exactly these cyber attacks look like or how they may appear. Here, you will be walked through how AI is being used to attack businesses and how these scams can appear on your site or in your emails.
AI-Powered Attacks & Deepfake Social Engineering
Many people remember the phishing scam emails of the early 2000s, with one of the most common being an email from a Nigerian prince offering to share their wealth with whoever sent them money.
In more recent examples, hackers are using AI to create convincing phishing and spear phishing campaigns, which look and sound professional. There have been instances of deepfake videos and audios, as well as social-engineering techniques that are almost indistinguishable from real forms of communication. These can get through traditional cybersecurity defences as they mimic human behaviour closely. So, to protect your business or your website, it may be worth exploring different detection systems, such as EDR vs MDR vs XDR.
Ransomware Evolution
Ransomware is one of the larger threats, and the patterns aren’t just about encrypting data. They are now stealing data first, threatening to publish it, and even targeting business customers or partners via leaks.
This has even led to people giving hackers money from their own bank accounts through fear of sensitive information being made public.
Supply Chain Attacks
Cyber hackers will look to exploit weak spots in supplier, vendor, and service provider chains. So, if you order your shop’s cups from an online retailer via email, you could be exposed if their own systems are attacked. In the last year, these attacks have led to enormous downstream compromises and caused weeks of downtime for businesses to prevent another attack, which, if you are a small business, could lead to bankruptcy.
Rapid Automated Vulnerability Discovery
As mentioned before, websites need to up their cybersecurity to protect vulnerable data. AI tools are helping hackers to spot unknown bugs or weaknesses in a website’s code or security, which enables hackers to exploit these within seconds and gain access to data. Website owners are often left in the dust, trying to patch or respond quickly, which can be a near-impossible task without a similar system in place to prevent access.
Remember, as much as AI is being used to cause chaos in the online security system, cybersecurity teams are one step ahead, using AI to help them detect issues in website security and to prevent hacking within seconds. This will protect your business data and will also ensure that your customers’ payment and other sensitive information will be protected too.
