In response to cyber defenders’ increasing use of artificial
intelligence (AI) technologies, malicious actors started discussing their
potential application for criminal use, report ITRealms
Research from Control Risks, the specialist global
risk consultancy, shows that the development of techniques to use these
technologies and tools to enhance their capabilities is now increasingly on the
agenda of cyber threat actors, report ITRealms.
Associate Director and head of Control Risks’ cyber threat
intelligence team, Nicolas Reys, explained that more organisations are
beginning to employ machine learning and artificial intelligence as part of
their defences against cyber threats.
“Cyber threat actors are recognising the need to advance their
skills to keep up with this development. One application could be to use deep
learning algorithms to improve the effectiveness of their attacks. This shows
that AI and its subsets will play a larger role in facilitating cyber attacks
in the near future,” he said.
Although there are currently no known attacks using AI, but
these technologies, he said, could assist threat actors in a number of ways.
This includes spear phishing campaigns, dubbed hivenets,
extensive, customized attacks, and advanced obfuscation techniques.
He explained that the spearphishing campaigns: In the
targeting of a criminal campaign, threat actors could use algorithms to
generate spearphishing campaigns in victims’ native languages, expanding the
reach of mass campaigns. Similarly, larger amounts of data could be
automatically gathered and analysed to improve social engineering techniques,
and with it the effectiveness of spearphishing campaigns.
Dubbed ‘hivenets’: In the post-infection phase, clusters of
compromised devices that have the ability to self-learn, so-called dubbed
‘hivenets’, could be used to automatically identify and target additional
vulnerable systems.
Extensive, customised attacks: Based on its assessment of
the target environment, AI technology could tailor the actual malware or attack
in order to be unique to each system it encounters along the way. This would
enable threat actors to conduct vast numbers of attacks that are uniquely
tailored to each victim. Only bespoke mitigation or responses would be
effective for each infection, rendering traditional signature or
behaviour-based defence systems obsolete.
Advanced obfuscation techniques: Threat actors could evade
detection by developing and implementing advanced obfuscation techniques, using
data from past campaigns and the analysis of security tools. Attackers may even
be able to launch targeted misdirection or ‘noise generation’ attacks to
disrupt intelligence gathering and mitigation efforts by automated defence
systems.
“The use of AI is not likely to become widespread soon,
given the financial investment that is currently needed. However, as more
research is produced and AI technologies become more mature and more accessible
to threat actors, this threat will evolve. Organisations should be aware of the
potential for these types of attacks to emerge in the course of 2018. Staying
informed and being able to identify relevant emerging attacks, technologies and
vulnerabilities is therefore just as important as being prepared in the event
of an attack,” Reys said.
Nonye Dom/GEE
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