AI is changing many industries, but its impact is particularly evident in cybersecurity. On the face of it, AI adds a potent new capability to the already well-stocked armouries of cybercriminal gangs.
Stephan Gilliland, Head of Information and Cybersecurity at CoCre8, says generative AI gives cybercriminals the capability to take their phishing attacks to a whole new level, using social engineering techniques to dupe unwary users more effectively.For example, GenAI enables voice and even video phishing. A clerk receiving what seems like an instruction from the CFO to expedite a payment into a certain account is likely to obey it.
An example of the smart use of AI is the Fortitude platform, developed locally in South Africa. It uses powerful GenAI to automate time-consuming but vital tasks: vulnerability assessment, penetration testing, running exploits and brute-force attacks, all performed at lightning speed. “Defence teams can do much more much more quickly, which is why 63% of IT and security professionals believe that AI will improve corporate cybersecurity, according to a recent Google survey,” he adds.
Security environments are typically as heterogenous as the systems they’re protecting, creating a tsunami of alerts that can prove overwhelming. Alert fatigue is a real challenge for security teams.