Cyberattacks
Expert expects AI arms race with hackers
Recently, hacker attacks with ransomware Trojans on large companies made the headlines - and had far-reaching consequences. According to one expert, the fight against cyberattacks could soon continue in a different direction.
In the fight against cyberattacks, experts are predicting a race with hackers in artificial intelligence. Attackers are likely to soon start using algorithms to automatically modify their malware so that it is not detected by antivirus programs, Mikko Hyppönen, head of research at IT security company F-Secure, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
Online criminals currently check at regular intervals whether their ransomware Trojans, for example, are stopped by antivirus software and adapt them if necessary. "This process can very easily be replaced by machine learning," said Hyppönen. Hackers could then even modify their attack software every 15 seconds to make it more difficult to detect. The only solution for security companies would be to adapt their systems to this rate in a similar way. "We would immediately have an arms race between artificial intelligence on the bad side and the good side."
Growing complexity and lack of transparency
At the same time, Hyppönen warned that self-learning systems based on machine learning are now becoming so complex and intransparent that it is almost impossible for humans to understand how they work. "It's not a good feeling to build systems that you don't understand yourself." However, this is exactly what will happen the more artificial intelligence is used in the fight against cyber attacks.
Hyppönen sees a potential major threat in as yet undiscovered vulnerabilities in the older Wi-Fi protocols used by all kinds of devices for wireless connections. "A nightmare scenario would be if someone were to find a vulnerability that could be used to infect vulnerable devices in the vicinity." Then, for example, every computer within range in the office would be infected - or every smartphone in the subway. "We haven't seen anything like that yet, but it could happen."
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