Interesting People mailing list archives
Fwd: Hackers Have Already Started to Weaponize Artificial Intelligence
From: "DAVID FARBER" <dfarber () me com>
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2017 20:17:09 -0400
Begin forwarded message:
From: the keyboard of geoff goodfellow <geoff () iconia com> Date: September 20, 2017 at 8:12:55 PM EDT To: E-mail Pamphleteer Dave Farber's Interesting People list <ip () listbox com> Cc: "Peter G. Neumann" <neumann () csl sri com>, Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>, Michael Grant <mgrant () grant org> Subject: Hackers Have Already Started to Weaponize Artificial Intelligence Last year, two data scientists from security firm ZeroFOX conducted an experiment to see who was better at getting Twitter users to click on malicious links, humans or an artificial intelligence. The researchers taught an AI to study the behavior of social network users, and then design and implement its own phishing bait. In tests, the artificial hacker was substantially better than its human competitors, composing and distributing more phishing tweets than humans, and with a substantially better conversion rate. The AI, named SNAP_R, sent simulated spear-phishing tweets to over 800 users at a rate of 6.75 tweets per minute, luring 275 victims. By contrast, Forbesstaff writer Thomas Fox-Brewster, who participated in the experiment, was only able to pump out 1.075 tweets a minute, making just 129 attempts and luring in just 49 users. Thankfully this was just an experiment, but the exercise showed that hackers are already in a position to use AI for their nefarious ends. And in fact, they’re probably already using it, though it’s hard to prove. In July, at Black Hat USA 2017, hundreds of leading cybersecurity experts gathered in Las Vegas to discuss this issue and other looming threats posed by emerging technologies. In a Cylance poll held during the confab, attendees were asked if criminal hackers will use AI for offensive purposes in the coming year, to which 62 percent answered in the affirmative. The era of artificial intelligence is upon us, yet if this informal Cylance poll is to be believed, a surprising number of infosec professionals are refusing to acknowledge the potential for AI to be weaponized by hackers in the immediate future. It’s a perplexing stance given that many of the cybersecurity experts we spoke to said machine intelligence is already being used by hackers, and that criminals are more sophisticated in their use of this emerging technology than many people realize...SNIP https://gizmodo.com/hackers-have-already-started-to-weaponize-artificial-in-1797688425 -- Geoff.Goodfellow () iconia com living as The Truth is True http://geoff.livejournal.com This message was sent to the list address and trashed, but can be found online.
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Current thread:
- Hackers Have Already Started to Weaponize Artificial Intelligence Dave Farber (Sep 12)
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- Fwd: Hackers Have Already Started to Weaponize Artificial Intelligence DAVID FARBER (Sep 20)