Exploring the Dark Side of AI: Understanding the Cybersecurity Risks and How to Safeguard Your Organization

In an era dominated by technological advancements, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force, revolutionizing the way we live and work. However, with great power comes great responsibility, and the darker side of AI manifests through various cybersecurity risks. In this blog post, we'll delve into what AI is, explore different types of cybersecurity risks associated with AI, and highlight how enhanced security awareness, Endpoint Protection, and Extended Detection and Response (XDR) solutions can serve as crucial safeguards against these evolving threats.  

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial Intelligence refers to the development of computer systems that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. These tasks encompass problem-solving, speech recognition, learning, and decision-making. AI systems learn from data, identify patterns, and continuously improve their performance without explicit programming. AI is important because it can help people and businesses solve problems that were previously impossible and automate tasks that were once time-consuming. Here are some ways AI benefits businesses:  

• Innovation and Efficiency: AI-driven technologies enhance efficiency, automate routine tasks, and enable data-driven decision-making, contributing to innovation and competitiveness. 
• Operational Optimization: Businesses leveraging AI can gain insights from vast datasets, leading to optimized operations, improved customer experiences, and informed strategic planning. 
• Industry Transformation: AI is reshaping industries, from healthcare to finance, creating new business models and opportunities. Staying informed about AI trends is vital for staying competitive. 

As AI systems become more ingrained in our businesses and daily lives, the potential for misuse and exploitation becomes a growing concern. The same tools helping scale a company can simultaneously destroy it. Therefore, the first step towards safeguarding your business against these potential threats is to have a clear understanding of what they are. 

The Dark Side of AI 

The growing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in businesses has revolutionized operations and boosted efficiency. However, it has also brought along cybersecurity risks that have become a significant concern for organizations worldwide. The potential for cyberattacks has increased as AI-powered attacks are designed to evade traditional security measures, making them more challenging to detect and mitigate. It is crucial to understand some of the most prevalent cybersecurity risks associated with AI to protect you and your employees from these risks:

Phishing Scams:  One of the most prevalent risks associated with AI is the augmentation of phishing scams. AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data to craft highly targeted and convincing phishing emails, making it challenging for traditional security measures to detect them. Users may unknowingly divulge sensitive information, leading to data breaches.

Fake AI-Generated Phone Calls:  As AI-driven voice synthesis technology advances, cybercriminals are leveraging it to create lifelike, fake AI-generated phone calls. These calls can convincingly mimic trusted entities, tricking individuals into providing confidential information or making unauthorized transactions.

Deepfake Attacks:  AI enables the creation of deepfake content, where realistic videos and audio recordings are manipulated to deceive viewers. Cybercriminals can use deepfakes to impersonate individuals in positions of authority, leading to fraudulent activities or damaging reputations.

Automated Social Engineering Attacks:  AI-powered social engineering attacks leverage machine learning to analyze target profiles and craft personalized messages. This enhances the effectiveness of these attacks, making them more difficult to detect and resist.  

As AI continues to advance, so do the malicious attackers. It is imperative to take proactive measures to protect your business from these risks. In the next section, we will discuss some steps that can help you mitigate these risks and safeguard your organization. 

How To Stay Protected Against AI

In today's digital age, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has become increasingly popular. However, it has also led to a rise in the sophistication of cyberattacks orchestrated by malicious actors. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has reported a worrisome spike in the number of phishing attacks and malware development instances involving AI. As a result, businesses across the globe have been impacted by an increased number of data breaches and leaks. In fact, as of September 2023, the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) has tracked 2,116 data breaches - a 17% increase from the 1,802 total compromises recorded in 2022.  

In light of these developments, businesses must remain vigilant and invest in a robust cybersecurity strategy to protect their employees and operations. To safeguard your organization, Telesystem offers a range of advanced cybersecurity solutions designed to help businesses combat these attacks. Our solutions are tailored to meet the unique needs of each business, as we take pride in providing our clients with comprehensive and proactive support. 

So, how exactly can Telesystem help your business stay protected? Let's take a closer look. 

Employee Security Awareness Training

In September of this year, Retool, an IT company, experienced a breach by an AI Voice hack. The attacker used SMS-based text messages to target several employees, claiming to be a member of the company's IT team and offering to resolve a payroll issue. One employee clicked on a link in the message and was taken to a fake login page. After entering their credentials, the hacker used an AI-powered “deepfake” of another employee’s voice to call and convince the employee to provide an additional multi-factor authentication (MFA) code. This allowed the hacker to access the employee's Google account; consequently, 27 of Retool's cloud customers were compromised. 

This incident highlights the risks associated with human error and how easily an entire organization can be taken down due to a single employee's mistake. Cybercriminals use advanced technologies such as ChatGpt to perfect phishing emails, text messages, and fake AI-generated calls, making it harder for employees to distinguish between legitimate and malicious requests. A recent survey revealed that 77% of victims in AI-enabled scam calls lost money, with more than a third losing more than $1,000. 

To combat such attacks, it is crucial to create a culture of security awareness among employees. According to a 2023 cost of a data breach report, human error is the cause of 92% of cyberattacks. By providing regular security awareness training, organizations can transform their employees into a human firewall capable of detecting, blocking, and reporting malicious activities at the early stages. Telesystems Security Awareness Training offers weekly programs that enable individuals to identify phishing attempts, fake AI-generated calls, and other deceptive tactics. This training fosters a culture of vigilance and skepticism among employees, making them more aware of the risks and better equipped to prevent attacks. 

It is essential to take a proactive approach to cybersecurity to protect your organization. Instead of relying on yearly training, companies should aim to provide more scheduled training sessions per year to ensure that their employees understand security policies and expectations. By doing so, employees become the first line of defense against cyber threats, ensuring the safety and long-term viability of the organization and its data.

Endpoint Protection

As the use of technology continues to grow, businesses are becoming increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks. In fact, almost 70% of all cyberattacks originate from an endpoint - any device that can access a network; this includes computers, smartphones, tablets, and more. This makes endpoint security a major concern for organizations, especially with the recent surge of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the cultural zeitgeist. Endpoint security has always been important, but with the rise of AI, businesses need to take additional precautions to protect themselves from attacks. 

Endpoints are often the weakest points in most enterprises' network security infrastructure, providing hackers with easy access points into the organization's data. Unfortunately, many companies are only covering their own office devices and are not taking into account other devices and IoT, leaving themselves vulnerable to attacks. According to Ponemon Institute's 2020 report, 51% of IT professionals blame endpoints for the failure of their company's security solutions.  

One of the most significant cybersecurity vulnerabilities is phishing emails. Recent studies have indicated an 1,265% increase in malicious phishing emails since the launch of ChatGPT, a language model app that can generate text that mimics human speech. AI has revolutionized how scammers produce the emails used to lure people in. Unfortunately, ChatGPT and other generative AI tools can easily create bodies of text that impersonate the tone and coherence of legitimate messages, making it harder to spot fake emails 

According to a new generative AI and cybersecurity report, 75% of security professionals have seen an increase in attacks over the past year, with 85% attributing the rise to malicious actors using generative AI. To protect employees from these attacks, businesses can implement Endpoint Protection solutions by Telesystem. Our platform can detect and block malicious activities at the device level, identifying and preventing AI-generated phishing attempts. Additionally, our Automated Global Whitelist technology only allows trusted applications to run on the endpoint, making it far more secure than traditional anti-virus solutions. If an application is not on the Whitelist, our Endpoint Protection blocks it, and the proprietary automation technology uploads the sample for immediate analysis and classification by our malware professionals. This automated process of analysis and classification keeps the whitelist updated in real time without user intervention. 

Endpoint protection enables businesses to take the necessary precautions to protect their employees, supervisors, and customers without interfering with their daily operations. By implementing Endpoint Protection solutions by Telesystem, businesses can rest assured that their endpoints are secure, and their sensitive information is protected. 

Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

As cyber threats continue to evolve and become more complex, organizations are faced with the challenge of effectively managing the growing volume of security alerts pouring into their security operations centers (SOC). For example, a company with an average of 1,000 employees can receive up to 22,000 security events per second in their security information and event management (SIEM) system. This translates to almost 2 million events in a single day, making it increasingly difficult for organizations to keep pace with the sheer volume of data. With limited means to correlate and prioritize these alerts, security personnel often struggle to identify critical events among the noise. In the end, more than 20% of security alerts end up being ignored, which can be detrimental to an organization's security posture. 

However, security teams cannot afford to ignore these alerts. Even a single missed alert could lead to a successful cyberattack. To address this challenge, Telesystem's XDR solution provides a comprehensive approach to threat detection and response. By integrating and analyzing data from multiple sources, including endpoints, networks, and cloud environments, XDR solutions can identify and neutralize even the most sophisticated AI-driven attacks in real-time. 

Additionally, XDR eliminates visibility gaps between security tools and layers, enabling overburdened security teams to detect and resolve threats faster and more efficiently. For instance, XDR offers a holistic approach to cybersecurity. It does not simply monitor one threat location such as endpoints or user activity. Instead, it monitors traffic throughout your network so that potential threats can be spotted no matter where they occur. By capturing more complete, contextual data, XDR empowers organizations to make better security decisions and prevent future cyberattacks. With Telesystem's XDR solutions, organizations can stay ahead of the curve and keep their sensitive data safe and secure.

Telesystem is Here for Your Business

As AI technology continues to advance, cyber risks to businesses will continue to rise. Telesystem’s comprehensive suite of cybersecurity solutions, including Employee Security Awareness Training, Endpoint Protection, and Extended Detection and Response (XDR), are designed to help your organization combat the increasing threat of cyberattacks. 

Our team of experts will work closely with your business to design a solution to meet your unique needs. You can trust Telesystem to keep your business secure and protect your people, devices and data in the age of AI.