Nation state-backed hackers and criminals are using generative AI of their cyberattacks, but U.S. intelligence can also be using artificial intelligence technologies to search out malicious activity, in accordance with a senior U.S. National Security Agency official.
“We already see criminal and nation state elements utilizing AI. They’re all subscribed to the large name corporations that you just would expect — all of the generative AI models on the market,” said NSA director of cybersecurity Rob Joyce, speaking at a conference at Fordham University in Recent York on Tuesday. “We’re seeing intelligence operators [and] criminals on those platforms,” said Joyce.
“On the flip side, though, AI, machine learning [and] deep learning is completely making us higher at finding malicious activity,” he said.
Joyce, who oversees the NSA’s cybersecurity directorate tasked with stopping and eradicating threats targeting U.S. critical infrastructure and defense systems, didn’t speak to specific cyberattacks involving the usage of AI or attribute particular activity to a state or government. But Joyce said that recent efforts by China-backed hackers to focus on U.S. critical infrastructure — regarded as in preparation for an anticipated Chinese invasion of Taiwan — was an example of how AI technologies are surfacing malicious activity, giving U.S. intelligence an upper hand.
“They’re in places like electric, transportation pipelines and courts, attempting to hack in in order that they could cause societal disruption and panic on the time rather than their selecting,” said Joyce.
Joyce said that China state-backed hackers usually are not using traditional malware that may very well be detected, but relatively exploiting vulnerabilities and implementation flaws that allow the hackers to achieve a foothold on a network and appear as if they’re authorized to be there.
“Machine learning, AI and large data helps us surface those activities [and] brings them to the fore because those accounts don’t behave like the conventional business operators on their critical infrastructure, so that offers us a bonus,” Joyce said.
Joyce’s comments come at a time where generative AI tools are capable of manufacturing convincing computer-generated text and imagery and are increasingly utilized in cyberattacks and espionage campaigns.
The Biden administration in October introduced an executive order geared toward establishing latest standards for AI safety and security while pushing for stronger guardrails against abuse and errors. The Federal Trade Commission recently warned that AI technologies, like ChatGPT, might be “used to turbocharge fraud and scams.”
Joyce said that AI “isn’t the super tool that could make someone who’s incompetent actually capable, but it surely’s going to make those who use AI more practical and more dangerous.”
“One among the primary things they’re doing is that they’re just generating higher English language outreach to their victims, whether it’s phishing emails or something rather more elaborative within the case of malign influence,” said Joyce; the latter referring to efforts by foreign governments to sow discord and interfere in elections.
“The second thing we’re beginning to see is we’re seeing less capable people use artificial intelligence to guide their hacking operations to make them higher at a technical aspect of a hack that they wouldn’t have been in a position to do themselves,” said Joyce.