It takes a thief… How AI is being used by and against fraudsters

April 17, 2024 – Published on The Irish Times

A voice note from your teenager daughter tells you that she urgently needs money transferred to a bank account. It sounds remarkably like her, in accent, vocabulary and tone, but it isn’t. It’s just one of the latest manifestations of how AI is being used by bad actors to scam unsuspecting consumers. A voice sample of just a few seconds, harvested by a scammer, can be used for such nefarious purposes.

For businesses, the stakes can be much higher and the losses much greater. The powerful capacity of generative AI to perform complex business tasks at scale is a double-edged sword. As the operation of the financial services sector is underpinned by analysis of numbers and text, large language models can be exploited by criminals, particularly using the more modern applications that understand nuance and context. It’s a race between good and evil.

While it is hard to quantify the level of attacks in Ireland, it is generally accepted that they are on the rise, with SMEs being the subject of a greater level of vulnerability as large corporates are more likely to have the resources and expertise to deal with a cyberattack.

An international study by GuidePoint Security last autumn revealed an 83 per cent year-on-year increase in reported ransomware attacks, with the manufacturing and technology industries most impacted, followed by retail and wholesale trades.

Continuous investment in security, adopting practices such as two-factor identification and increasing cybersecurity awareness throughout the organization can all help mitigate threats – but breaches can have catastrophic effects.

Read More HERE.