AI is a hot-button issue these days. While most of the focus is on its potential dangers, our Altamonte Springs IT support services team wants to share how AI can help fight cybercrime.

It’s all over the news right now – Artificial Intelligence, or AI – and how it is changing our lives. Anytime new technology emerges, there is a learning curve. Naysayers say it will worsen things, while some industries tout its importance as the beginning of the next great wave of the information age. The truth likely lies in the middle, as we must all examine how to best use this new tool.

Our Altamonte Springs IT support services staff at Dytech Group has been protecting businesses for over 40 years. Our mission is to use IT and cloud services to increase productivity and efficiency with a high level of security. A big part of that is cybersecurity, so we will examine how AI can be a danger to cybersecurity and a defender of it.

How AI Helps Cybercriminals

In the same way that high school students ask ChatGPT to help them write their essays, cybercriminals can get AI to write malicious code. These Large Language Model (LLM) AI interfaces can be a cyber threat because they learn as they create more content. 

AI-created malware can infiltrate a network and spread itself throughout the system resulting in data loss, ransomware attacks, or supply chain disruption. 

And this threat is not new. Cybercriminals have used AI and ML (machine learning) platforms for years. The difference now is how advanced the technology has become in the intelligence level of AI. The smarter it gets, the more prepared we must be to defend against it.

How AI Can Fight Cybercrime

What you hear the loudest is the dangerous side of AI and the negative implications of this technology. But AI presents an opportunity to help businesses protect their data even more. Here’s how.

AI Can Make Inferences

Beyond a computer program that is designed to act on “if-then” statements of code, AI is smart. It can learn. And it can spot patterns and take proactive action to protect users from malicious threats.

AI Can Provide Continuous Monitoring

Keeping an eye on everything all the time is the perfect job for AI. And because it can analyze large amounts of data quickly, it can track threats more effectively and neutralize them with automated incident response. AI can also help human security personnel identify new cybercrime trends, allowing proactive preventative measures to be taken.

AI Can Identify Suspicious Behaviors  

Combing through vast amounts of data allows AI to spot when activity is out of the ordinary. Suspicious behaviors like failed password attempts can be flagged and investigated. Speaking of passwords, AI can also weed out all the weak passwords on your network and have users create stronger credentials.

AI Can Identify Insider Threats

Not every threat comes from an external source. Guarding against insider threats can be a challenge because users on your network have already been vetted. Here’s another opportunity for AI to spot suspicious activity and flag it. When a threat comes from inside your network, AI can shut it down, preventing a potential data breach.

Conclusion

Is AI good or bad? The truth is it can be whatever we want it to be. It’s simply a tool we can use for good or bad. Our Altamonte Springs IT support services team recognizes the emerging threats AI presents and the possibility of using that same technology to defend against cybercrime. Contact us today for more information about how we can keep your business and its data secure.

Download our Cyber Security Essentials white paper for more tips you can use today to protect your data.