I have been focused on entering the field of cybersecurity for a long time now. The field interests me and seems adequately challenging and engaging. When the opportunity to further my knowledge of this field presented itself in the form of this assignment, I wanted to think about what is really relevant to the field right now. Considering I should be finishing my degree soon and trying to enter the workforce, I wanted to learn about how the cybersecurity field is changing and what could give me an edge against other potential employees. I have heard from multiple sources that AI is taking over industries left and right and was curious about how it is affecting the cybersecurity field. AI is affecting the field in a big way as outlined by Cybersecurity in the age of AI. This Ted Talk presented by Adi Irani presented a lot of enlightening information about the different uses of AI by hackers. I was expecting the presentation to examine how AI is being used to protect and secure information; however, it makes more sense that the inventive and corner cutting nature of hackers would be more drawn to AI than big corporations. This is exactly what Irani outlines in his presentation and what I will be reiterating throughout this review.
In this video presentation Irani outlines the threat that the computer industry is constantly under and how AI is aiding in the different types of attacks that everyone from big corporations to everyday users are facing. Irany points out that generative AI can wright surprisingly good malware and with enough time and effort a mildly competent hacker could come up with some extremely dangerous malware. Next Irani discusses how generative AI can also create personalized social engineering schemes to scam people out of money or get them to download malware onto their device. This is done by tricking someone into opening some kind of link most commonly through an email. By personalizing these social engineering attacks, the success rate of these fishing attacks jumped from 18 percent up to 51 percent as cited in the video Irani, A. (2024). This means that generative AI can aid in both ends of the hacker’s operation. Both the creation of malware and the infiltration of secured machinery are aided through the use of generative AI. This is a scary thought however Irani finalizes his presentation with some key ideas to help secure and protect networks. One of these recommendations was to implement some use of generative AI into a network to increase productivity thus giving time to focus on security. He also recommends using AI to detect AI written attacks. In other words, if you were to get an email and you couldn’t tell if it is real or not, ask AI. These generative AI are extremely good at detecting writing from one another.
Throughout this video presentation I feel I gained some insight into the way that AI is shaping the cybersecurity field. I found it interesting that the main focus of the presentation was on the ways in which generative AI is aiding hackers and not how it is aiding security specialists. The recommendations at the end of the presentation felt more like an afterthought than the focus of the presentation. This makes me think that the main purpose of the presentation was to highlight the severity of this issue and how commonplace it is within this field. If this is true, then I feel as though I have gained some valuable knowledge from this presentation that could give me the opportunity to stand apart from others in my position. By focusing on this issue and continuing to learn and utilize generative AI as a tool for cybersecurity professionals, I could gain a distinct view that employers could find value in.
This video presentation offered a lot of information about generative AI and the different uses it has in the cybersecurity space. It focused a lot on how it can be used to aid and advance hacking in the sector but also touched on how it can be used to aid security professionals. overall, I feel like a gained a lot from the video itself and can take away a new found focus on where my time and energy is best placed within the field of cybersecurity.
References
Irani, A. (2024, January 4). Cybersecurity ted talk [Video]. Microsoft Bing. https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=cybersecurity+ted+talk&mid=6625C5644CD7F7FD85F16625C5644CD7F7FD85F1&FORM=VIRE
Andrew Kennedy 