Artificial intelligence has influenced every aspect of our daily lives. Nowadays,thousands of tech companies have developed state-of-the-art AI-powered cybersecurity defense solutions specifically designed and programmed by ethical hackers and penetration testers. The Artificial Intelligence used in such solutions helps prevent cyberattacks from even happening by predicting the potential risks.

Every tech app or service we use contains at least some type of Artificial Intelligence or smart learning technology, at least in most cases. It is now of a high possibility of connecting almost every electrical device to the internet to create our own personalized smart environments, all thanks to the recently announced 5th generation speed networks and rapid advancement in machine learning. In order to improve the overall efficiency and performance of the tasks these IoT devices are set to, they have to communicate and exchange information with each other repeatedly.

How will AI affect cybersecurity?

With the use of AI, most of the tasks are automated, and these AI-powered apps are used in every sector like healthcare, education, military, etc. The data from these smart devices is collected from a set of sensors such as heat, light, weight, speed, or noise. The machine learning technology is directly connected with the security of digital devices and our data/information. There has been an extensive progression in the artificial intelligence sector. And in today’s modern age, where all our devices are connected either to the internet or some other modes of networks, the risks of security issues and the need for Artificial Intelligence solutions have skyrocketed.

How do Hackers use artificial intelligence?

Different Artificial Intelligence solutions help when our devices are involved in heavy communication under the connection of networks, automatically sending our data securely to the remote cloud servers where all the data and information are gathered and analyzed by the robotic process in order to understand, visualize and extract useful information. Now the challenge arises in safely sending this confidential data to servers as there are many potential threats and risks of hackers stealing this data, which can, in turn, lead a device to be used illegitimately, leaving a privacy risk. Therefore, we must have a way of securing these devices and overcoming these risks in the form of a solution that involves high usage of AI-powered applications.

AI Cybersecurity Solutions to Block Phishing in IoT Devices

Since we all use the web regularly, the most common medium we use to access it is an internet browser. And cybercrooks, due to their malicious nature, have found several mechanisms to deceive the innocent and unsuspecting users into providing sensitive information through phishing. This method works when a cybercrook makes a fake SMS, video, phone call, or shopping site that offers goods, products, or services at very unbelievable prices. But when a user enters their personal information, like credit card or other payment information, it goes straight into the hands of web-hackers who then use this for their very own personal usage. Then the innocent buyer never receives anything that they ordered. However, cyber professionals have deemed artificial intelligence as a countermeasure for this hacking method. The AI-powered web-based filters and firewall applications are now available that upon deployment on a user’s device like their computer;it protects the users by now even letting the user open a website that raises flags of a little bit of insecure and suspicious. Machine learning coded into Artificial Intelligence helps learn the new patterns of scams over time, and these AI-powered firewalls learn automatically new ways to protect users against advanced cyber risks. When users install these anti-scams firewalls into their digital devices like mobile phones, then the chances of phishing related scams are extremely reduced.

AI Solutions to Protect Identity Theft

Data leaks and identity theft nowadays are on the rise, as the passing time has very much revealed the shocking fact that the number of such cyber-attacks is only increasing over time. As humans, we are not perfect, and we also keep forgetting very important things in our lives. The same goes for when it comes to the protection of data/information like our passwords for our different accounts, including social media, bank accounts, and so on. Since we keep the usage of the same passwords for too long that the chances of it being break/cracked by cyber-crooks increase. Or simply sometimes we keep a device logged-in with our info, and someone else physically takes the device and can see our private information. But with the use and implementation of AI, this problem is hugely reduced as Artificial Intelligence automatically determines that a password of an account is being used for too long, and it is time to change, keeping the user reminding that changing-passcodes regularly is vital for information-safeguarding. Similarly, if an account is open and someone tries to change, edit or modify info/data the Artificial Intelligence parameters are automatically triggered that asks the users to re-verify their passcodes, hence protecting the user from ID/data theft

Bottom Line

Let’s face it, everyone uses the internet, and for using the internet we need a web-browser. It’s common knowledge that there are billions of people who use the internet everyday and for hours.  We use browsers on every device we own no matter it’s our smartphone, tab, laptops. The Internet is a crucial part of our lifestyle; there is no denying this fact. However, Artificial Intelligence only has the power to predict potential cybersecurity risks and take feasible countermeasures and to block them even before time. However, practicing privacy enhancement methods plays a vital role in developing secure habits that can save us, users from any malicious attack attempt on our IoT devices. Obtaining the EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) Certification would give you the critical base-knowledge of implementing Artificial Intelligence into a cybersecurity environment.

 

Original post: https://blog.eccouncil.org/the-role-of-artificial-intelligence-in-ethical-hacking/