Data Poisoning: a Ticking Time Bomb

As artificial intelligence (AI) and its associated activities of machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) become embedded in the economic and social fabric of developed economies, maintaining the security of these systems and the data they use is paramount. The global cyber security market was estimated by IDC to be worth $107 billion in 2019, growing to $151 billion by 2023. Most of this will be spent on services based around software and hardware designed to protect systems against intrusions by hackers seeking to steal data or compromise networks. However, an area of concern often missed is the integrity and reliability of the data which is being used for the training datasets relied on by ML algorithms. Data poisoning could become a significant attack vector used by hackers to undermine AI systems and the organisations building businesses and processes around them.