Avoiding The AI Attacks: How Independent Support Can Keep You Safe

The increase in AI across our everyday lives has had untold benefits for many, but it has not come without a cost. 

In order to move with modern times, many companies have adopted an AI-first approach to their business. Its ability to automate more menial tasks and quicken the pace of many processes has helped to drive businesses to greater heights than before. This has led to more investment in AI across the board but, while many see the positives, the rapid investment into AI has also served to mask the more sinister use of the technology that many businesses have fallen foul of.

Since the large-scale introduction of AI, its links to the increase in cyberattacks have been equally inescapable. The sophistication and pace of execution of cyberattacks has increased across the board, and much of this has been down to the weaponization of AI from cyber criminals. A survey recently found that 63% of IT and cybersecurity professionals had reported some sort of AI-driven cyberattack in their business within the last year. So, while we continue to enjoy the benefits that AI brings, we must also be aware of the risks we now face because of it.

Artificial Intelligence: A Double-Edged Sword

The AI boom over recent years has meant a massive increase in accessibility to it as a technology, and this of course means it is not just more accessible for your business- but to hackers and cybercriminals as well. Essentially, AI has lowered the barriers to effectively carry out cyberattacks. While this of course means more speed and efficiency from experienced cybercriminals, it also means attackers with less technical skills are now able to carry out complex operations that would have been above their skillset before. As AI has become more accessible, so has the ability to exploit it.

One of the chief uses of AI from cybercriminals has been to help decrease the draw time between identifying a vulnerability within your systems and being able to exploit it. By utilizing AI, hackers have been able to massively accelerate the time it takes to create the tools they need to exploit vulnerabilities. Basically, this means that an attacker can now spot the gap in your armour and shoot at it quicker than ever before.

More than just speed, AI has also helped to improve the sophistication of cyberattacks across the board as well. Utilizing AI, hackers can now create more convincing phishing emails, develop more complex malware and perform more efficient attacks on systems. There has also been an increase in AI-generated deep-fakes which have been used to commit large-scale fraud, like the $25 million attack on the Arup Group back in 2024. It’s malicious uses even stretch as far as victim-profiling as many hackers use it to help identify and target more vulnerable users. The increased implementation of AI in cybercrime has meant a rising risk to cybersecurity, data sensitivity and revenue for all businesses.

Thankfully, the cause of these issues is also effectively part of the solution as many businesses are increasingly employing AI as a defensive tool in their cybersecurity armoury to help mitigate risk.

AI As The Answer

While the detrimental effects are clear for all to see, AI has also been transformative for cybersecurity in a positive sense too. It has improved threat detection, prediction, and response through advanced analytics, automation, and the ability to learn from data. The challenges it has created can often be effectively addressed by helping defenders to analyze larger datasets to identify anomalies, automate routine security tasks and assist with incident response.

As a defensive tool, AI has helped businesses with:

• Enhanced threat detection- Improved scale of data analysis to detect threats like malware, phishing, and user behaviour in real-time.
• Predictive analysis- Predicting potential risks by analyzing patterns, identifying vulnerabilities or predicting service outages.
• Improved efficiency- Automating routine tasks like log analysis and vulnerability scanning which helps to reduce workload and improve efficiency of security teams.
• Better vulnerability management– AI can identify vulnerabilities across a threat landscape and generate reports to help teams prioritize and mitigate them.
• Assistance with investigations- Generative AI tools can summarize findings, generate reports, and provide step-by-step recommendations for security.

By better utilizing AI as a defensive tool, businesses can help to offset much of the damage it is capable of doing as an offensive one. However, it is only one piece of the puzzle to help stem the tide of AI-generated cyberattacks in the modern software landscape.

Prevention Through Proactive Support With Origina

Finding the right partner can be key in your journey to safely securing your IT estate, and Origina has the expertise and the experience to provide the support you need. First and foremost, Origina is a people first business which means we offer engaged, concierge-level security support that’s contextual, risk-based and in-depth. Increased engagement and availability for customers means Origina can provide more proactive security support that is about identifying and mitigating issues before they become a problem. As our Director of Security and Regulatory Services, Ben Lypczynski puts it “…small, consistent actions—like regular threat intelligence reviews and control effectiveness assessments—are essential to maintaining a dynamic and responsive security posture in an ever-evolving threat landscape.”  At Origina, we believe in a personal partnership that is preventative rather than reactive.

While our people will always be our power, we are also a forward-thinking business and we understand the importance of fighting fire with fire when it comes to AI. Our security experts utilize AI to keep pace and find risks before the hacker does in order to mitigate them. Our AI approach is about more than just developing tools to react to issues when they occur, it’s about stopping them occurring in the first place.

Concerned about the future of your software security? Get in touch with Origina today.