ChatGPT. It seems to be all anyone’s talking about at the moment, especially in business circles and on LinkedIn.
The new AI chatbot is harmless enough in day-to-day circumstances, but could its code-writing ability threaten your organisation’s cybersecurity?
In short, yes, it could.
But AI cyberattacks are nothing new. If anything, the potential risk posed by ChatGPT will help businesses; it throws the severity of artificial intelligence attacks into the limelight, persuading leaders to invest more in protection. This blog explores what ChatGPT means for your cybersecurity and what to do about it.
What is ChatGPT?
You’ll most likely have heard of ChatGPT. It’s all over the internet.
ChatGPT is a language-generating (chatbot) AI – but it’s one of the most advanced ever released. It can hold natural-sounding conversations and even fact-check to some extent.
Its potential applications are almost endless. As a user/machine learning program, it will continue to develop and become capable of increasingly complex jobs.
It was released by American AI developers OpenAI. Microsoft recently announced a significant investment deal in this company, meaning we might expect to see it featured in Microsoft 365 soon.
Does ChatGPT pose a risk to SME cybersecurity?
ChatGPT, if misused, could pose a genuine risk to any organisation’s cybersecurity. It’s so advanced that it can write operational code upon request.
While this feature is brilliant from a development point of view, it’s raised concerns that hackers could use it to install viruses or find breaches that would otherwise be hidden. For example, it could write effective SSL injection malware.
Here’s the long and short of it. If your business wants to maintain adequate cybersecurity in the modern world, it must use AI as part of your defensive tooling. If the criminals are using AI and you aren’t, it could be used to find a way in. The only way to respond to the threat is by adjusting and upgrading your defences.
Using AI in cybersecurity is nothing new. In fact, it’s far more effective than anyone sitting there manually inputting data. AI can detect and react to things that users can’t (such as a user suddenly deleting significant amounts of information).
Criminals and firewall companies alike have been implementing AI for some time now. We recommend an in-depth review of your current firewall, virus scanners, and system processes to protect yourselves as best as possible. Security information and event management (SIEM) and security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) solutions use AI and machine learning to analyse huge amounts of data to see patterns, trends and behaviours that don’t fit with normal behaviour. No human could do this with the vast quantity of data that must be processed.
A ten-year-old system that hasn’t been patched or kept pace with the latest cyber threats would have no chance in today’s environment.
Deal with the threat of AI: red team vs blue team
Red vs blue is arguably the most effective way to prepare for cyberattacks. This is especially important now that AI could be so heavily involved.
Using a red vs blue approach involves ‘ethical hacking’. Once a time has been set for the event, the red team will attack your systems, attempting to gain access. The blue team will defend it.
Through simulated attacks like this, your organisation will learn where its vulnerabilities are. You can then patch these potential breaches so you’re better prepared.
Cybercriminals might spend months observing silently in the background. Over time, they create a map based on emerging patterns. Once they’ve bypassed the firewall and got into the system, they’ll often steal admin login credentials or elevate the privilege of a standard user to admin and then that’s it’s game over.
How can AMDH help your business?
ChatGPT has remarkably advanced code-writing capabilities. While it should technically be safe in general, criminals will always find a way. Thus, we advise taking precautionary measures regardless.
ChatGPT is new. Threats posed by AI aren’t.
Cybersecurity is a vast, complex topic. It involves many aspects and can often feel daunting, especially if you only have a small ICT department.
That’s where AMDH Services can help. As an independent consultant, it’s our job to help develop, maintain and protect operating systems.
Our experienced staff are familiar with the dangers posed by AI, including the newly-released ChatGPT.
We’ll sit down with you and your team to devise an effective strategy to protect yourselves against AI cyberattacks. This functions differently from business to business and depends on the critical information you need to protect, what existing hardware and software you have, and so on.
For an obligation-free chat, why not get in touch? We’d love to hear from you. You can reach us using the contact form below.
