This is an excerpt from an article in SecurityWeek by Gunter Ollmann, who is currently the CSO of Microsoft’s Cloud and AI Security division. He is a seasoned information security leader.
With the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) technology shaping the digital world at an increasing pace, Gunter Ollmann expects that the first examples of AI-driven malware will emerge in the next two to three years. He outlines 6 different capabilities of AI malware that should be relatively easy to develop:
- Automated compromise of systems and networks that does not require frequent communications between the malware and the command-and-control (C&C) server of the attacker.
- Identification of the most valuable data on compromised systems through data labeling and classification, which will involve machine learning (ML).
- Employment of conversational AI to participate in email and chat communications on compromised devices while masquerading as targeted users in order to socially engineer coworkers of victims.
- Use of AI-driven speech to text translation in order to capture valuable information from the environment that can be recorded with the microphone of a compromised machine.
- Use of embedded cognitive AI in order to determine various characteristics of victims and deploy payloads only if victims meet certain criteria.
- Creation of a “bio-profile” of users based on their behavioral characteristics in order to bypass advanced behavioral monitoring systems.
Read more: Get Ready for the First Wave of AI Malware
