AI could soon uncover your darkest secrets cyber-security researchers warn
Fresh warnings are raising the alarm bells over the security risks that come with the advancement of artificial intelligence. This comes after warnings from industry experts that the technology might soon be about to uncover your deepest and darkest secrets.
Writing for The Conversation, expert Christopher Ramezan, who is the Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity at the West Virginia University, warns that AI systems ‘collect large amounts of data’ and sometimes, this is done ‘without people even realizing their data is being collected’.
This could end up being very beneficial for hackers but a nightmare for everyday users as fears surrounding cybersecurity rise.
AI could expose private digital information
One tech expert warns that if something ‘exists in digital form’, then it’s important to treat it ‘like it could end up on a billboard’.
This is according to Kim Komando, a cybersecurity expert known as 'America's Digital Goddess' who told the Daily Mail: “You’d need the discipline of a spy and the lifestyle of a hermit. Real people have neither.”
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It is feared that all of the personal information people are inputting into AI models to receive help and advice with daily tasks could eventually be used against them.
Tracking social media use and private messages
That includes any personal or financial information, with even deleted messages, location pings or doorbell camera footage becoming a cause for concern.
Ramezan goes on to warn that AI could be collecting data from your social media use to your digital shopping cart or even private medical records.
Any activity done online which an individual might want to keep private might now be at risk of being used by a hacker using an AI model.
Romantic affairs
The world was left stunned by the Ashley Madison scandal in 2015, where a data breach saw a whopping 37 million users have their information exposed, with many using the site to have extramarital affairs.
The incident caused marriages to end and for some people to end leave their jobs - and this was all before the invention of AI - so now, many fear similar private information could be more easily exposed with the help of the advanced technology.
Recently, multiple incidents were reported involving AI bots managing to break free of contained testing environments, with some even cheating their tests by going rogue to gain internet access or hacking into other companies.
In one particularly concerning case, the AI model created fake human identities in order to trick coders into helping the bot with a cyber attack.
Allison Gardner, who chairs the British parliament’s cross-party group on AI, spoke to the Daily Mail to suggest that ‘just because we can build these technologies doesn’t mean we should’.
She went on to say: “Unless we are too late and have not only created Pandora’s Box but already opened it.”
Financial information
Karolis Arbaciauskas, who is the head of product at cybersecurity company NordPass and its parent organization Nord Security, explained how the cybersecurity market is facing an ‘unprecedented challenge’.
He continued: “AI has begun to outpace our existing defensive capabilities. It’s transformed from a theoretical concern, and now global intelligence agencies, including the Five Eyes alliance, are sounding the alarm. They warn that the accelerated development of advanced AI models is on track to overwhelm conventional security norms and defenses within months.
“Imagine the fallout if AI agents globally began using unethical shortcuts to complete their tasks. Or worse, if a bad actor deployed an ‘AI agent commando’ specifically designed to assault adversaries.”