Financial service institutions have been increasingly embracing machine learning and artificial intelligence to boost their IT security. But, so too have the bad actors who are banging at the digital gates of these financial service institutions (FSIs).
Ninety-seven percent of cybersecurity professionals find the prospect of “AI-powered attacks troubling” according to a 2021 study from MIT Technology Review, cited by Smita Nalluri, cybersecurity executive at Darktrace during a presentation Tuesday at the SC Finance eConference. While nearly all of these organizations are preparing for the AI onslaught (96%), Nalluri pointed out that this “perfect storm” of a cybersecurity arms race, combined with a growing attack surface and overstretched financial industry resources presents the ideal environment for cyber-criminals to gain hold.
“As the complexity of businesses increases, so does the risk,” Nalluri said, adding that while FSIs have been using machine learning for a long time, so have cyberattackers. Even five years ago, Nalluri pointed out, there was an automated bot that tracked online users’ likes, dislikes and preferences to target spear-phishing attacks. And, with the recent pandemic, and the huge uptick in remote workers, there is the potential for several new attacks. (Case in point: Zoom added 300 million new users in recent months, as many more people are still using this videoconferencing platform to connect.)
Continue reading: https://www.scmagazine.com/analysis/network-security/artificial-intelligence-becomes-more-automated-for-security-applications
Ninety-seven percent of cybersecurity professionals find the prospect of “AI-powered attacks troubling” according to a 2021 study from MIT Technology Review, cited by Smita Nalluri, cybersecurity executive at Darktrace during a presentation Tuesday at the SC Finance eConference. While nearly all of these organizations are preparing for the AI onslaught (96%), Nalluri pointed out that this “perfect storm” of a cybersecurity arms race, combined with a growing attack surface and overstretched financial industry resources presents the ideal environment for cyber-criminals to gain hold.
“As the complexity of businesses increases, so does the risk,” Nalluri said, adding that while FSIs have been using machine learning for a long time, so have cyberattackers. Even five years ago, Nalluri pointed out, there was an automated bot that tracked online users’ likes, dislikes and preferences to target spear-phishing attacks. And, with the recent pandemic, and the huge uptick in remote workers, there is the potential for several new attacks. (Case in point: Zoom added 300 million new users in recent months, as many more people are still using this videoconferencing platform to connect.)
Continue reading: https://www.scmagazine.com/analysis/network-security/artificial-intelligence-becomes-more-automated-for-security-applications
