Darktrace, a cybersecurity firm, recently warned that since the introduction of ChatGPT, there had been an increase in criminals leveraging artificial intelligence to execute more deceptive scams that target employees and business systems.
Reporting a significant; 92% profit fall in the half year ending December, the Cambridge-based company unveiled the damage ransomware cases enabled by Artificial Intelligence (AI) can bring to businesses coerced into paying money in exchange for data.
ChatGPT, Microsoft’s AI tool launched in November last year, has increased the sophistication of scammers as per cyber surveillance done by the said company. Complex and persuasive cybercrimes have been carried out since the launch of ChatGPT.
The company spokesperson says:
“Darktrace has found that while the number of email attacks across its own customer base remained steady since ChatGPT’s release, those that rely on tricking victims into clicking malicious links have declined while linguistic complexity, including text volume, punctuation and sentence length among others, have increased.”
“This indicates that cybercriminals may be redirecting their focus to crafting more sophisticated social engineering scams that exploit user trust.”
Darktrace has stated that although the use of the dark web has shifted the tactics of existing cybercriminals, this is not yet resulting in a new flock of them.
The company spokesperson went on to say:
“ChatGPT has [not] yet lowered barriers to entry for threat actors significantly, but it does believe that it may have helped increase the sophistication of phishing emails, enabling adversaries to create more targeted, personalised, and ultimately, successful attacks.”
In the October-December period of last year, Darktrace registered a “noticeable” slackening in businesses taking up its security products, which it relayed in its results.
Operating profits in the last six months of 2022 dropped due to a tax bill resulting from the vesting share awards given to Poppy Gustafsson (CEO) and Cathy Graham (finance boss). This drove down the company’s expected free cash flow for this year.
The company, whose market capitalization at the end of December was £1.9bn, significantly lower than the approx.£7bn only a few months after flotation, reported that its customer base grew by 25% from 6,573 to 8,178 in that period.
Although facing criticism recently from those skeptics who do not agree with its goal of attaining great power in cybersecurity, a domain where the US dominates, Darktrace states it is not anxious regarding the drop in incoming jobs.
The emergence of AI-enhanced scams underscores the need for ongoing research and development in cybersecurity. As we continue to push the boundaries of what is possible with AI and machine learning, we must also remain mindful of the potential risks and take proactive measures to mitigate them. With the right tools and strategies in place, we can ensure that the benefits of this powerful technology outweigh its risks and help to secure a safer, more connected future.
Source: the guardian