{"id":6432,"date":"2024-05-31T09:44:53","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T14:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stratospherenetworks.com\/blog\/?p=6432"},"modified":"2024-06-03T15:49:03","modified_gmt":"2024-06-03T20:49:03","slug":"webinar-recap-how-generative-ai-is-impacting-the-future-of-cybersecurity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stratospherenetworks.com\/blog\/webinar-recap-how-generative-ai-is-impacting-the-future-of-cybersecurity\/","title":{"rendered":"Webinar recap: How generative AI is impacting the future of cybersecurity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AA carrot farm. A chocolate factory. An egg distributor. What do all these businesses have in common?<\/p>\n

They\u2019re all clients that the security solutions supplier eSentire<\/a> has taken on in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody needs security today,\u201d said John Moretti, a principal solutions architect for eSentire, during a recent webinar. \u201cYou can\u2019t afford to be down. You\u2019ll lose business.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s particularly true these days because of how generative artificial intelligence<\/a> (a.k.a. genAI) affects cybersecurity<\/a>, presenting new opportunities as well as challenges. During the May 22 webinar co-hosted by eSentire and Stratosphere Networks, attendees learned about how generative AI<\/a> is impacting the future of IT security.<\/p>\n

For those who couldn\u2019t attend the live event, here\u2019s a recap of some vital information covered during the webinar. Please register here<\/a> to view the recording if you want the full learning experience. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Security risks presented by generative AI<\/h2>\n

While artificial intelligence has existed since the 1950s, it\u2019s undergone dramatic changes in the past couple of years with the explosion of new generative AI solutions. These applications produce creative content such as text, images, audio or video after absorbing patterns from input datasets.<\/p>\n

Most of us currently use AI in one form or another daily, whether we\u2019re reading an AI-generated summary in Google search results or asking a virtual assistant for help finding a vacation destination.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt tries to understand and give us the best experience possible,\u201d Moretti said of AI.<\/p>\n

However, law-abiding citizens aren\u2019t the only ones with the power of AI at their disposal; hackers have access to these tools, too, and they\u2019re seizing the opportunities presented by genAI to supercharge phishing campaigns and ransomware.<\/p>\n

\u201cThreat actors are using AI against us every day,\u201d Moretti said. \u201cThreats are changing every single day across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, he noted that bad actors can now churn out nearly pristine phishing emails. Gone are the days when clunky grammar and abundant typos made malicious messages easy to identify.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually saw a phishing attack where the email was almost totally legitimate,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was one character that was off.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re unsure if an email is genuine, he recommended calling or texting the person and asking if they reached out: \u201cWe have to do that today. Unfortunately, there\u2019s no way around it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moretti confirmed that phishing is still the No. 1 type of cyberattack leading to ransomware incidents today, as observed by eSentire. With \u201cransomware as a service\u201d packages for sale on the dark web, it\u2019s easier than ever for malicious individuals to orchestrate attacks these days \u2013 no coding experience needed.<\/p>\n

Additionally, eSentire has observed hackers infiltrating a business environment and biding their time for six months to a year while gathering information about the organization to construct a customized ransomware package.<\/p>\n

In addition to helping hackers compose phishing messages and craft malware code, genAI can lead to data breaches if your employees feed it sensitive or proprietary data. For example, ChatGPT creator OpenAI acknowledge that threat actors exploited a vulnerability to access users\u2019 chat history in May 2023, according to eSentire.<\/p>\n

Any usage of generative AI must also comply with data privacy and security regulations such as HIPAA. Generative AI could affect your cyber insurance coverage, and eSentire notes that inputting data subject to compliance requirements into an internally hosted large language model (LLM) will subject that system to regulatory scrutiny.<\/p>\n

How to combat evolving threats with generative AI<\/h2>\n

So, how can businesses safely deploy generative AI while addressing the risks presented by the technology? Cybersecurity providers like eSentire have developed solutions that allow you to deploy genAI applications and LLMs safely.<\/p>\n

eSentire\u2019s strategy involves the following:<\/p>\n