How many real or imminent cyber threats did your company encounter in the past month? These days, it’s not unusual for a business to face IT security risks daily since hackers are becoming increasingly creative. An unknowingly clicking on a link or download can cause bleeding losses before you know it.
There has been a lot of talk recently, about how hackers are leveraging AI to breach businesses. Hackers can sneak their way in more easily with these new algorithms used in social engineering.
Unfortunately, these are no longer just theoretical discussions. We have reached a point where AI-powered data breaches are actually a reality. In fact, they are among the most rapidly growing threats to businesses everywhere. Today, we will talk about some real-life examples of recent data breaches made possible through AI.
IKEA’s well-known online marketplace TaskRabbit was one of the targets of hackers using AI to breach businesses in April 2018. TaskRabbit’s primary goal is to match freelancers (Taskers) in housekeeping, moving, delivery, and similar industries with local demand (Clients). It operates on a large scale, and when the breach happened, the site had millions of registered users.
The company has found out that over 3.75 million records of Taskers and Clients were affected in the breach. Personal information and financial details were stolen. The website and the mobile app had to be shut down and taken offline for a while as the company dealt with the damage. According to investigations, the distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attack used an AI-enabled botnet.
Yum! Brands, was the victim of hackers using AI to breach businesses in January 2023. Initially, management thought that corporate data was the sole target of the attack, but it turned out that employee information was also compromised. An unidentified malicious actor launched a ransomware attack that led to the breach.
Many ransomware attacks that took place after the creation of AI tools leveraged AI technology to automate decisions on which data to take, as some brought more damage potential to the target business. It proved to be a good tactic, as Yum! was forced to close nearly 300 of their UK branches for several weeks.
This wireless network operator is no stranger to data breaches, having survived nine separate attacks in the last five years. Early this year, T-Mobile revealed that 37 million of its customer’s records were stolen in a breach that began in November 2022.
According to the company’s AI analysts, the threat actor used an application programming interface or API equipped with AI capabilities and could secure unauthorized access. This ultimately led to the theft and exposure of sensitive client information, including full names, contact numbers, and PINs.
In December 2023, hackers launched a targeted phishing campaign against Activision, the company that created the Call of Duty games. Hackers used AI to breach businesses like Activision and created the SMS messages used for the phishing attacks, which ultimately proved successful as one HR staff member succumbed to the bait.
But we all know that one click is all it takes because, immediately, the hacker gains access to the complete employee database. This included email addresses, phone numbers, work locations, salaries, and more. However, they were able to find a solution since Activision could find the breach early.
Because of AI tools, data breaches have become much more far-reaching today in terms of business damage as compared to years past. The total cost is also much higher, with an average expense of $4.45 million for each breach. Although hiring an AI cybersecurity expert and upgrading your system would cost money, it wouldn’t come close to the expense of the harm a cyberattack would cause.
The examples above are all real, and as you can see, they have happened to large companies. All these companies thought they had reliable security systems, or so they thought. The point is that any of us, including you, could experience a data breach, especially one that uses AI. To learn more about how hackers use AI technology, download our FREE eBook, “The Growing Role of AI in Security – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”
Would you take the risk and just cross your fingers that you don’t become the next victim, or would you take proactive measures right now to boost your defenses and maximize your company’s protection? If you choose the latter, we are here to provide all the services you need. Just contact us so we can make sure your system is safe from AI attacks.
Artificial intelligence has brought many advantages to different aspects of modern life. This new technology allows for the fast and accurate analysis of massive amounts of data. It can eliminate task redundancy and minimize human error. Businesses have benefited from this powerful tool, as it enables them to accomplish more while using fewer resources. However, AI-powered social engineering also brings with it a plethora of new security risks.
It is an impressive bit of technology, but it is not perfect, and hackers take advantage of its vulnerabilities for their malicious purposes. Also, it didn’t take long for cybercriminals to figure out how to leverage AI tools, especially with social engineering.
Before we bring AI into the picture, let us first talk about what social engineering is and why it is considered by many to be one of the most dangerous security threats.
It is the use of manipulative or deceptive tactics to entice unwitting victims to do something they won’t normally do, like divulging sensitive information or confidential data, granting access to unauthorized entities, or performing other actions that compromise the company’s security.
Social engineering comes in many forms, the most prevalent of which is phishing. Other methods are pretexting, baiting, and CEO fraud. When using these strategies, hackers bank on human error or weaknesses in human nature. It has always been a very effective method of hacking, but now, with powerful AI tools, social engineering has climbed to an entirely new level.
Generative AI tools have taken on much of the challenge that hackers used to face with social engineering. Through a range of AI algorithms, the techniques can now be implemented faster, more efficiently, and on a much wider scale than ever before.
Before AI, phishing emails had a generic look. They would not immediately draw your attention because it looks like something standard or random. But with AI, hackers can now create highly personalized and more convincing phishing messages that are more likely to get a response from the recipients. They can gather and analyze huge amounts of data from all over the internet, which helps make the emails seem credible.
It’s certainly fun to play with apps that give you AI-generated likenesses of your photos. However, hackers will use the voice and facial recognition technology in these AI apps for their social engineering schemes. You might have a video call from someone you know, not realizing that you are talking to an AI-generated video of them. Hackers can easily do this using Deepfake technology, which not only manipulates images but audio as well.
Another capability of AI that hackers find extremely useful is to emulate human behavior. Through data analysis and machine learning, AI can create fake social media profiles, which can then spread fake news or sway public opinion. Even worse, hackers can automate all of this so it can happen quickly and result in far-reaching disastrous consequences.
When live chat features came into use, customers would chat with a live person in real time. An actual customer service representative answered your questions or would assist you with whatever concern you had. But these days, it’s likely that you are only talking to a chatbot, which can give very human-like responses. Hackers use similar chatbots, except, instead of providing information, their main goal is to gather data or deceive unsuspecting individuals.
There is no way to stop cybercriminals from using AI tools for their malicious gain, especially since these tools have proven to be very effective. Despite the rising instances of AI-powered social engineering, you can take proactive measures to keep your business secure.
Ai-powered or not, social engineering tactics are highly reliant on human negligence. So it makes sense to keep these threats under control through constant education and awareness. Businesses must conduct regular training to keep employees updated on the latest cybersecurity threats and to remind them to stay vigilant and never let their guard down.
The more layers of security you have, the harder it will be for hackers to get into your system, even if they use the most advanced AI algorithms. Multi-factor authentication gives hackers an extra hurdle to overcome when they try to get into your system.
If hackers are using AI to boost their social engineering game, there is no reason you shouldn’t use AI to enhance your company’s security solutions. With artificial intelligence, it is a two-way street. You can either fear it or use it to your advantage. If implemented properly, an AI-powered cybersecurity system can give you an impeccable defense against any attack that online criminals might throw your way.
There are multiple ways that cybercriminals can leverage AI tools for their social engineering strategies. But there are just as many ways by which you can build a formidable defense against these attacks. To learn more about what you can do, download our Cybersecurity E-book. Call us anytime so we can send you more information or schedule a free consultation!
Companies have tried many methods to train employees about phishing and social engineering. But after all this time, over 90% of all data breaches are traced back to human error. It seems we haven’t progressed from where we were five years ago! Is it that hard to learn? Perhaps there is a better training method that we can use.
Social engineering is one of the newest methods hackers use to access sensitive information. Rather than attacking a system directly, this technique relies on human psychology to gain information. This method is brilliant when you think about it because it does not have to deal with going past ironclad network security. If hackers can manipulate even a single employee, they might hand over sensitive information on a silver platter, and the hackers can take control of the organization’s entire system. This is why its important for your employees to learn how to spot social engineering.
The number of companies moving to cloud operations is rising each year. This is not a surprise because cloud solutions are now a vital instrument for the growth and development of businesses in today’s digital world. If you have been looking for a way to scale your business and haven’t tried cloud technology, there is no better time to take the plunge than now.
As invaluable as the security solutions that protect a network are, they can be effectively rendered useless if a cybercriminal is skilled in social engineering. Social engineering is the practice of using manipulation to access protected resources, as we will review later. If your business and its team are vulnerable to a social engineering attempt, you are missing a critical piece of your data security strategy.
Hackers are always trying to find the latest exploits to infiltrate unsuspecting businesses. One of the most dangerous and arguably the most difficult to identify is called a social engineering attack, which is where the hacker exploits the end user, rather than cracking the security of technology systems.
One minute you’re browsing trusted sites on the Internet, the next, your PC freezes up and displays the dreaded blue screen of death, along with a fake tech support message. This strain of malware is duping plenty of computer users into calling the provided phone number, which only makes the situation worse.
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