ChatGPT and Cybersecurity: What You Need to Know
Technology has long been debated as a boon or a bane to society. History tells us that all inventions were brought to life with good intentions, and later became dangerous. In 2023, OpenAI ChatGPT, the advanced form of AI technology, will be at the centre of this debate, especially in the cybersecurity industry.?
Experts believe that the AI-powered chatbot is a powerful tool with great potential for both use and abuse. While it can be used by cybersecurity teams to bolster defence processes, the same can be utilised to build advanced and sophisticated cyber threats. So, how to make sense of it all is the obvious question. Read on to learn what you need to know about ChatGPT and Cybersecurity.?
First, it is important to know the pros and cons of ChatGPT related to the cybersecurity industry.?
PROS
ChatGPT can help in the automation of several cybersecurity-related tasks.? This, in turn, will make the processes efficient, effective and perhaps help in lowering costs too. For example, penetration testing that involves the testing of cyber defences can automate the function of developing malware for attack simulations.?
Another user case in the security incident analysis. In the event of a cyberattack, time is of great value, and ChatGPT can help the security team to respond quickly and effectively.?
Generally, when a cyberattack occurs, security analysts often extract different data sources to assess if the attack is real or not. It involves a lot of manual work and the use of SOAR, which can be difficult. Instead, experts believe that taking data from Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and providing it to ChatGPT can be beneficial.
The key insights, recommendations and advice from ChatGPT can make the decision-making better. The advantage of an AI tool is that it can assess large volumes of data and draw conclusions which otherwise can be missed by humans. Moreover, it can identify trends and make accurate predictions.?
领英推荐
The CEOs and board members often find it challenging to understand what entails cybersecurity processes and the technical jargon. ChatGPT is well known for summarising complex topics. Thus, business leaders can quickly learn the latest trends and topics related to cybersecurity. Thus, the knowledge gap between knowledgeable people and others can be eliminated. Furthermore, better and more productive conversations around cybersecurity can happen in the boardrooms.?
CONS
The top cybersecurity researchers are already releasing reports about how ChatGPT is being used as a tool to generate malware code, including ransomware. In fact, the findings reveal that the AI writing tool can be used to develop highly evasive malware called polymorphic malware. This is made possible by updating the ChatGPT with malware code present in open-source repositories and demanding variations of the same. In addition, ChatGPT can be used to generate payloads such as info stealers and remote access trojans.?
ChatGPT is a game changer for cybercriminals engaged in phishing attacks. This is because the tool talks in a conversational manner and provides grammatically correct answers.?
Phishing emails and messages are identified mainly through their awkward language, misspelt words and grammar errors. The near-perfect language generated by ChatGPT is a major boost to phishing campaigns. Security professionals would need detection tools to distinguish between AI-generated content and human-made content.
Technology can be used for both good and bad. As more updates of ChatGPT happen, cybersecurity experts must keep an eye on the new features and keep experimenting to defend against cyber attacks. Plus, businesses should take the opportunity to explore ways in which ChatGPT can be used to their advantage.