AI Emerges as a Powerful Tool for Cyber-Threat Actors

In response to cyber-defenders' increasing use of AI technologies, malicious actors are discussing their potential application for criminal use. Research from Control Risks, the specialist global risk consultancy, shows that cyber-threat actors are actively exploring the development of innovative new techniques to use these technologies and tools to enhance their capabilities. For instance, in the post-infection phase, clusters of compromised devices, dubbed hivenets, could develop the ability to self-learn and could be used to automatically identify and target additional vulnerable systems. "More and more organizations are beginning to employ machine learning and artificial intelligence as part of their defenses against cyber-threats," said Nicolas Reys, associate director and head of the Control Risk cyber-threat intelligence team. "Cyber-threat actors are recognizing the need to advance their skills to keep up with this development. One application could be to use deep learning algorithms to improve the effectiveness of their attacks. This shows that AI and its subsets will play a larger role in facilitating cyber-attacks in the near future."