Hackers equipped with artificial intelligence tools have become a nightmare for cybersecurity experts. The rise of AI is ushering in a new era in cybersecurity.
The progressively advancing code-writing and autonomous action capabilities of artificial intelligence have reached a concerning level for cybersecurity experts. This is because these emerging technologies are paving the way for a new generation of hackers who can easily bypass existing cybersecurity measures. It is believed that these hackers, equipped with AI tools capable of performing certain tasks autonomously, could become a much larger problem in the near future.
The autonomous action aspect of this is particularly alarming. One of the most striking examples of this recently emerged on the Russia-Ukraine front. Russian hackers targeting Ukrainians managed to infiltrate the personal devices of many Ukrainians by hiding malicious software in emails. However, this time, what was hidden in the emails was not an ordinary trojan horse, but an AI program capable of acting autonomously. The task given to this AI was to scan devices for sensitive data and transmit the information it obtained back to Russia. This attack, which took place in July, was like a demonstration of the dangers awaiting both internet users and government institutions in the coming period.
AI Can Turn Even an Ordinary Person into a Hacker
Current AI technologies make already skilled hackers even more dangerous. However, these hackers are only one side of the coin. On the other side are millions of people who could suddenly become amateur hackers thanks to AI. Widely used AIs like ChatGPT detect and refuse to generate potentially harmful code or tasks. However, open-source AIs that run directly on local devices can be modified to bypass such security measures. This means that millions of people could soon have their own mini-hackers.
This ongoing transformation shows that a new era for cybersecurity is on the horizon. The long-standing cat-and-mouse game between hackers and cybersecurity experts has now entered a new dimension. Heather Adkins, a cybersecurity expert at Google, emphasizes that we are entering a new era, stating, “this is the beginning of the beginning.”
Of course, in this new era, cybersecurity experts will also have AI tools at their disposal. In fact, the team led by Heather Adkins at Google has already started using AI to strengthen security measures. Google’s AI tools are constantly scanning to find and patch vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit. Adkins notes that these AI tools have already helped close more than 20 critical vulnerabilities.
On the other hand, it is thought that the increasingly common AI assistants and AI agents among users could also transform into a kind of “guardian angel,” warning users against attacks like malicious software hidden in emails. This shows that AI will be quite useful for the defense side as well.
We will wait and see whether AI will contribute more to hackers or to the defense side in the coming period. But one thing is certain: a new era has begun in the field of cybersecurity.
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