The Growing Threat of AI-Driven Hacks: A New Frontier in Cybersecurity

Lately, we’ve seen the most radical change in the techniques employed in carrying out cyberattacks. Thanks to the invention of artificial intelligence (AI), which has changed the perception of hacking, the world of cyber-security has also been revolutionized. Being a person who is really concerned on how technology affects our lives, I have looked into the ways in which the use of AI changes the hacks and how it makes the threat level unprecedented.

The Timeline of Cyberattack Adaptation. Conventional vs. Modern (AI) Cyber Attacks.

The conventional methods of hacking are based on the manual work of a human, their intelligence, and the skill of persevering. Hackers would breach systems using already existing flaws, brute force (or phishing and even malware deployment) as means of penetration. Good as they were, these strategies took quite a lot of time, effort and expertise.

What is more, AI attacks are at a level of automating and sophistication one has never seen. Instead of getting stuck on boring tasks that can be typed in manual and repeated several times, AI allows for dynamic attacks where the opponent is always one step ahead. For instance, machine learning systems can perform reconnaissance on a target, find and…