Can ChatGPT help Improve Cybersecurity?
Since, ChatGPT is the talk of the town, you might already know what it is. So, we won’t waste much of your time discussing what ChatGPT is.
OpenAI’s recent innovation, ChatGPT has attracted more than a million users and counting. Mapping out new applications, developing codes, writing bedtime stories, poems have become easier for people.
However, the accuracy of ChatGPT is still a concern for business owners and as a result many of the firms have banned the tool to avoid high volumes of inaccuracy in their systems. Apart from all these issues that demand an improved AI tool, so far, ChatGPT has shown great help in the cybersecurity arena.
As we all know, AI is able to analyse vast amounts of data in seconds. ChatGPT is an improved version of AI as it is more directed towards problem-solving techniques that enables the users to access the entire corpus within one set of instructions.
In theory, ChatGPT has improved the efficiency of security professionals as it accomplishes the same output by a single individual which was otherwise accomplished by multiple individuals.
Will Cybersecurity Improve through ChatGPT?
According to Global Threat Intelligence Report released by BlackBerry, AI driven prevention – ChatGPT has stopped 1,757,248 malware-based cyberattacks in 90 days.
It goes without saying that new AI-powered cyber threats will demand newer cyber defences that are built on AI powered tools. And, we already can assume that the cyber criminals might be actively testing the waters with ChatGPT and enhance their phishing or malwares to launch a cyberattack.
As soon as ChatGPT matures, there will be an immediate need for organisations to employ AI defences in order to protect their data from potential cyber threats. Mitigating cyber security threats while deploying ChatGPT is the only key for protection.
Using AI for Greater Efficiency
Modern cyber threats require rapid detection and response. On an individual basis, identifying these modern attacks becomes a task. With the help of AI, the use of natural language processors, it has become easier to generate realistic responses and to detect phishing emails.
Since ChatGPT is at an early stage and there are a lot of flaws that need immediate attention by the makers, this AI tool in future is sure to address a lot of security concerns arising on a daily basis.
If ChatGPT is able to learn enough from its prompts, it might be that the tool is able to recognise potential attacks on the fly and give positive suggestions to an organisation to mitigate the attack and enhance security.
Cyber Security Threats of ChatGPT
It is clear that cyber security is at potential risk as the tool does not contain only the good things but the bad things as well. For example – if someone uses the right prompts, unlike using a search engine where the cybercriminals needed to dig deep, with ChatGPT, the criminal can jump straight to the answer and output the text in the answer box.
There are 5 sections of cyber threats that ChatGPT is going to affect:
- Data privacy
- Bias
- Misinformation
- Adversarial examples
- Phishing
Since, the internet is really vast, and the AI tool is trained on a large number of texts and information available on the internet, the tool might have learned information that is sensitive and private. And, the data produced by the AI is highly convincing, at a larger scale, misinformation can become an issue.
Not only this, biases in its output is not a hidden fact. Phishing campaigns and malicious outputs by the cyber criminals is another thing that concerns organisations and business owners.
Rethinking Security Approaches
Next generation AI models like ChatGPT have a potential to change the game for both, security professionals as well as cybercriminals. Now, from a business standpoint, one needs to be aware of the challenges as well as the opportunities it brings.
While there can be measures that an organisation can take to prevent them from falling prey to such AI-powered cyber attacks are as follows –
- Educate your employees on how ChatGPT works so they are more cautious while interacting with AI powered solutions.
- Adopting the Zero-Trust model grants access only after verification to the limited resources of an organisation.
- Implementing strong authentication protocols makes it harder for attackers to gain access to accounts.
- Monitoring activity on corporate accounts, tools, spam filters, behavioural analysis and keyword filtering blocks any potential malware. No matter how sophisticated the language, an employee will not fall prey to phishing emails.
- Leveraging AI is one of the solutions that helps identify and block any malware from entering into your organisational systems.
A holistic strategy that helps you leverage this new era of AI while minimising the risks it brings is the only key to drive your business.
While people are focusing on ChatGPT’s potential to write malicious codes, they often forget that it is challenging for attackers to direct the tool in helping them write such codes. The improved version of ChatGPT understands the behavioural signals and catches the malware, even if endpoint signatures missed the variant.
But again, there is no denying that attackers are more smart and they can trick the tool with malicious prompts in a way that can put an organisation’s assets at risk.
Final Words
Ultimately, ChatGPT can be used to develop sophisticated phishing emails that are harder to detect. But, organisations can stay one step ahead and leverage AI to protect their systems. But again, there is no denying that attackers are more smart and they can trick the tool with malicious prompts in a way that can put an organisation’s assets at risk. from cyber attacks.
Hence, if organisations are able to up their security game and use various mitigation methods, ChatGPT can become the driving force in their business. The tool is able to give suggestions on how to fix weaknesses, practise good cyber hygiene, deploy cyber security defences to their IT systems which surely helps level the security playing field.