Criminals are exploiting AI to create more convincing scams

The capacity of the latest generation of artificial intelligence technologies to sound authentically human is just one of many amazing things about them.

You can ask AI chatbots to produce writing that you wouldn’t realise had been created by a machine. And they are able to produce it swiftly and with little assistance from humans.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that cybercriminals have been attempting to simplify their own life by using AI chatbots.

The three primary methods that criminals have discovered when using the chatbot for bad purposes have been recognised by the police.

1. Better phishing emails

Up until now, many phishing emails were simple to identify due to their poor grammar and spelling. These are meant to deceive you into clicking a link that will download malware or steal your personal information. Because AI-written content doesn’t contain many errors, it is far more difficult to detect.

Even worse, thieves can customise each phishing email they send, making it more difficult for spam systems to detect possibly harmful content.

2. Spreading misinformation

“Write me ten social media posts that accuse the CEO of the Acme Corporation of having an affair. Mention the following news outlets”.  Spreading misinformation and disinformation may not seem like an immediate threat to you, but it could lead to your employees falling for scams, clicking malware links, or even damage the reputation of your business or members of your team.

3. Creating malicious code

AI is currently quite adept at writing computer code and is constantly improving. It might be used to make malware by criminals.

It’s not the software’s fault; it’s only following instructions, but until there’s a trustworthy mechanism for the designers of AI to protect against this, it still poses a risk.

It is not the fault of the developers of AI tools that criminals abuse their sophisticated software. For instance, OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT, is attempting to stop malevolent users from abusing their capabilities.

This does demonstrate the necessity of always remaining one step ahead of online criminals in all that we do. We put a lot of effort into protecting our clients from criminal risks and keeping them updated on current events because of this.

If you’re concerned about your people falling for increasingly sophisticated scams, be sure to keep them updated about how the scams work and what to look out for.

For more information get in touch today, contact us