How AI Poses a Unique Threat To Cybersecurity

AI is currently a hot buzzword in the tech industry, and for good reason. It can provide astounding productivity and precision in your note-taking, correspondence, content creation and more. However, cybercriminals are finding new ways to use AI to develop sophisticated scams and ransomware schemes. Here are the basics of AI and how it can threaten your business’s cybersecurity.

Types of Cyber Attacks Involving AI

You’ve likely heard of phishing, which is when hackers send you spoofed emails that pose as colleagues, bosses, or even family members trying to get sensitive information from you. AI content generators can be used to write these emails, making them seem even more realistic.

Similarly, smishing is when fraudulent actors text or message victims to gain access to bank or other personal information. AI can be used to seem like a real person that you’re messaging back and forth with due to advancements in conversational tone in AI-generated texting. Similar technology can be found in online customer service chatbots designed to look like a person typing and responding to questions.

Voice Impersonation Via AI

Another commonly seen scam is a variation of email phishing called “vishing”. This large-scale and often automated call scamming has become a more sophisticated means of stealing sensitive information. Vishing can be especially convincing with AI manipulating voices on the phone to sound like employees, colleagues, spouses or even children. To learn more about vishing, read our blog about it here.

How Does Voice Impersonation Work?

AI technology relies on resources obtained from the internet to generate content. In this way, AI voice generators can be fed audio from video clips of your children, spouse or boss speaking and replicate it to say whatever hackers plug in. Although it may be unrealistic to expect everyone in your life to avoid posting videos of themselves, there are ways to combat voice impersonators by taking precautions with information disclosure over the phone.

Cyber Attack Detection & Ways to Combat AI Tricks

There are many ways to figure out if a call from a loved one is legitimate. The first step, however, is to determine what a suspicious phone call, email, or text may sound like. Tricks hackers use to manipulate you into acting might include:

• Calls for help from children, sometimes even making up kidnapping scenarios
• Loved ones or bosses asking for financial favors in a pinch
• Calls or voicemails from familiar voices asking about sensitive personal information
• Banks or other institutions contacting you to obtain passwords and other data

Once you’ve learned how to recognize suspicious communications, you can implement code-word systems and other ways to determine their legitimacy of them.

Use Code-Word Systems

Code words that only your loved ones or bosses know are a great way to figure out if a suspicious message or call is legitimate. You can change up these code words and make them as elaborate as you want, making it difficult for scammers to get around.

Ask Security Questions

Much like digital authentication, security questions can be used to determine if a loved one or colleague is being impersonated. These can include questions about favorite childhood stuffed animals, personal stories or details, and other information that a cyber criminal cannot find on the internet. Ensure these aren’t easily obtainable answers like family member names or hometowns, as social media has made it easy for hackers to find them.

Other Ways To Identify And Avoid AI Scams

A good rule is to avoid answering unknown numbers or email addresses unless you expect the message or call. To educate your staff, regular phishing training is an industry best practice to help reduce your risk of a cyber attack incident. After all, the weakest link that puts you at the greatest risk is human error.

Cyber Security Readiness

Cyber attackers rely on the assumption that you’re easily emotionally manipulated, so they use fear-inducing or otherwise urgent messaging to trick you. This is why educating yourself about what scams to look out for is crucial. You can learn more about cyber attacks and frameworks used to prevent them in our blog about it here.

Looking for a toolkit to get started with your cybersecurity plan? Check out our exclusive cyber essentials checklist for free below.