The recent reports of artificial intelligence agents gone rogue—hacking into corporate systems without being told to by the humans who manage them—are enough to make any systems administrator’s hair stand on end.

The increasingly powerful abilities of frontier and other advanced AI models, combined with the apparent inabilities of their creators to keep them caged, have only added to the worries of companies already wrestling with how to protect themselves against AI-armed attackers.

Cybercriminals of all kinds are using AI tools in much the same way legitimate organizations do, boosting their productivity and moving their operations from human to machine speed.

Meanwhile, businesses have understandably embraced AI themselves. But every new AI tool or application a company chooses to roll out comes with its own security risks. 

When it comes to AI, many companies feel like they have to take an “adopt or die” business perspective, says Leslie Nielsen, executive vice president and chief information security officer at Mimecast. “They think everybody’s going to pass them by,” Nielsen says. “But then the other side is, if you adopt too fast, it’s adopt and die, right?”

While AI threats may be rapidly advancing, so are AI-powered defenses. And experts say following old-school best practices can go a long way toward protecting against even the most advanced attackers.

The tactics used by AI attackers aren’t a whole lot different from those of human-powered adversaries, they’re just faster and more efficient, Nielsen says. As a result, the fundamentals of defense don’t need to be much different either.

Source link