AI is transforming the way work gets done across industries. But while it improves business efficiencies, it also arms cybercriminals with highly effective tools. These bad actors use AI to power sophisticated social engineering tactics, including malware, ransomware, and convincing phishing campaigns, to trick targets into giving up personal information, compromising themselves and their organizations.
The rise of large language models (LLMs) and generative AI (GenAI) makes it extremely difficult to spot these malicious schemes when they occur. They can create communications that, at times, can be nearly indistinguishable from those written by humans. To make matters worse, these advanced campaigns are more straightforward for cybercriminals to quickly build and deploy, which is why these attacks have exploded in volume, according to McKinsey. Since the proliferation of GenAI platforms in 2022, phishing attacks have risen by 1,265%.
Bad actors have ramped up their ability to find vulnerabilities, leaving enterprises to fend off a new wave of advanced attacks. While organizations look for ways to optimize AI to work for them, they must also elevate cybersecurity practices to defend against it.
Prioritize Risk Assessments
AI systems can quickly analyze large volumes of network data to find patterns, anomalies, and weaknesses. This can either work for or against an organization. Cybersecurity criminals use the ability to identify target areas of an organization for attack campaigns.
Organizations must be one step ahead and identify these weaknesses before bad actors do. To do this, enterprises must use AI and risk assessment tools to locate and address security vulnerabilities, and they should start with a penetration (pen) test. Pen tests are often used to simulate an attack on a system to find weaknesses, which allows enterprises to map out their needs and formulate a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy. They can be conducted at any time and should be done proactively and frequently, so that no stone gets left unturned. Autonomous penetration testing, especially, can enable organizations to identify new weaknesses as they emerge so they can take proactive steps.
Put the Right Technologies in Place
Once assessments have been performed, companies must decide on the tools and processes they need to implement to mitigate risk and patch vulnerabilities. Each organization’s approach will be different, but finding the right combination of technology is critical to maintaining proactive security.
Endpoint management is a critical piece of the puzzle for modern organizations. Any given organization has a slew of different endpoints to manage. From laptops to smartphones, there are a host of targets for cybercriminals to go after and for security professionals to defend. In today’s world, where the mobile workforce can access sensitive business data from anywhere, endpoint management is a necessity.
The advent of AI-powered security threats puts a greater onus on IT teams to manage and lock down these endpoints to avoid breaches. Next-gen endpoint protection solutions use AI, machine learning, and behavioral analytics to continuously monitor and detect suspicious activity before it becomes a serious issue. By protecting every connected device, organizations can strengthen their broader security framework.
Enterprises should further secure their environments through multifactor authentication software and, of course, the best practice of using strong passwords. When combined, these help to fend off brute force attacks by making it increasingly difficult for cybercriminals to access login credentials. If an employee loses their mobile device, these authentication safeguards will help keep business data protected.
Take a Layered Approach to Security
In medieval times, kingdoms guarded villages with tall castle walls to keep out attackers. In case attackers had ladders to scale the walls, these kingdoms sometimes surrounded their walls with moats. To prevent attackers from crossing the moat and scaling the walls, these kingdoms had archers shoot at oncoming attackers.
Each safeguard is a different layer of security, precisely how IT teams must defend their organizations. Relying on a single line of defense is not viable against AI-powered attacks, and no single security solution can guarantee that attackers won’t get through. However, a comprehensive multi-layered approach can significantly reduce the chances of a breach.
Software is one layer of security, while employee education and activity, continuous system updates, and partnerships with security experts are additional safeguard layers. Each one presents different benefits. To minimize the likelihood of an attack being successful, enterprises must invest in security training for all employees. AI makes many cyber threats more tenacious and sophisticated. For example, by educating employees on the latest ploys and tactics of AI-powered phishing attacks, employees are less likely to be fooled, making the attacks ineffective. Furthermore, training employees on what compromised website links may look like and to avoid clicking them minimizes the risk of infecting endpoints with malware.
Almost all software today has built-in security tools to ward off threats. As these attacks grow in tenacity and sophistication, software vendors release patches and updates to help defend against them. This is why organizations and employees must continuously update their software with the latest security patches.
Lastly, partnering with security experts and consultants can help fill any security gaps, whether they’re around solutions, knowledge, or training. These partnerships can also be more cost-effective. Rather than buying security infrastructure or hiring a security expert to work in-house, organizations can pay for a subscription to security services and hire consultants to help them with their needs as they arise. Partnerships are a great way to boost security and resiliency and map out a strategy for specific needs and environments.
As AI-powered cyber threats continue to evolve, enterprises must adopt a more secure approach to security. Understanding where vulnerabilities lie and crafting a strategic plan to eliminate them will help protect data, revenue and reputation. By consistently conducting assessments and putting the right tools, technology and processes in place, organizations can not only get ahead of AI threats but also develop a security posture that will endure whatever the next wave of threats may be.
About the Author
Michal Gray is the CTO of Thrive. Michael has been a strong technology leader at Thrive over the past decade, contributing to the consulting, network engineering, managed services and product development groups while continually being promoted up the ladder. Michael’s technology career began at Dove Consulting and later Praecis, a biotechnology startup that was acquired by a top five pharmaceutical firm in 2007. Serving in his current role, he is now responsible for Thrive’s R&D, technology road-mapping vision, while also heading the security and application development practices. He is a member of several partner advisory councils and participates in many local and national technology events. Michael has a degree in Business Administration from Northeastern University, and he also maintains multiple technical certifications including Fortinet, Sonicwall, Microsoft, ITIL, Kaseya and maintains his Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).
Michael can be reached online at https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-gray-4861663/ and at our company website https://thrivenextgen.com/.
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