AI is a technology that has spread to a lot of industries, and it is gaining massive applications in almost anything. The use of AI solutions isn’t only limited to individuals, as enterprises often use AI to solve certain problems, such as content creation and customer support services.
Since both individuals and businesses often use browsers to access these AI solutions, there are some web security risks associated with this. In this article, you will learn an in-depth explanation of some of the security concerns of the use of AI.
What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
Before moving into the types of browser security concerns with AI, it is very important to know the meaning of artificial intelligence itself. Artificial intelligence is the creation or production of computer systems and components that help to perform certain tasks and functions that usually require human intelligence. Before any form of AI can function, it needs an algorithm on standby, as this will help it detect new forms of data, learn from them, create and recognize new patterns, and make adaptations where possible.
The meaning of artificial intelligence is not far-fetched. In the past, people were usually needed to create things such as text or even images; however, the advent of AI now allows computer systems to develop these texts and images. A good section of artificial intelligence that people and organizations widely use is generative AI, as it can be used to create text, images, audio, and videos. However, generative AI has proved to be the major sector in artificial intelligence, which can create a web security threat for users. For instance, there are many cases where popular AI solutions such as ChatGPT have leaked the personal data of users.
Browser Security Concerns Due to AI
Source: alliantcybersecurity.com
Below are some of the common web security threats one can get due to the usage of AI solutions in their browsers.
1. Privacy Risks
Both for private and enterprise users, privacy is one of the major aspects of artificial intelligence, which can pose a serious risk when using this type of technology. Imagine you are browsing through Twitter, and you see personal data you shared on ChatGPT being posted online by several users. Sometimes, when using AI solutions, users are expected to grant certain privacy rights to these AI apps or websites.
However, these AI solutions are not completely safe from hackers. There have been cases where cybercriminals hack into systems of these AI solutions and then leak the data of users. Especially in the case of ChatGPT, there have been occurrences of bugs, leading to the leakages of user’s data. Besides leakages of data, there are AI systems that were specifically created to collect data from users for certain purposes. For instance, some of these AI solutions are designed to collect user data from marketing profiling.
2. Data Breaches
There are several organizations that now continually make use of AI services to make their operations better. Apparently, there are many things that AI can help an organization to do, ranging from the creation of content to functioning as a customer support system. To perform these tasks, these organizations might need to provide certain information.
Sometimes, this information might be very important and sensitive, such as the amount of losses an organization is currently facing or their amount of profits. When sharing information such as this, there are often leakages, putting the affairs of the organization in public. According to data from Cyberhaven, more than 11% of the data workers for an organization enter into AI solutions like ChatGPT are often sensitive and confidential information.
Because of cases like this, an organization needs to employ services of data loss prevention solutions such as that of LayerX. These data loss prevention solutions create a safe passage for sending, receiving, and storing data while using AI solutions.
3. Ransomware
Source: coeosolutions.com
Ransomware is two different words put together to create one word, and they are ransom and ware. However, the major meaning of this compound word lies in “ransom,” which means the amount of money one has to pay to release a captive. Since the occurrence of this type of attack is online, the captives, in this case, are important data and resources.
What happens here is that cybercriminals find a way to steal confidential information or data through an AI solution. So, these cybercriminals threaten to leak these data unless the individual or organization involved pays up the amount of money they (the cybercriminals) are demanding.
4. Social Engineering Attacks
A lot of people underestimate what they can do with artificial intelligence. However, cybercriminals, on the other hand, are not always out of options for what to do with this technology. Apparently, they have found a way to use artificial intelligence for the propagation of high-level social engineering attacks on unsuspecting victims.
Nowadays, there exist generative AI technologies for videos that can be used to create deep fakes. Apparently, one can create a video that looks exactly like a company executive, coercing users to take certain actions that might affect them. In some other cases, ChatGPT can be used to create highly personalized emails that can make a cyber attacker look like the CEO or another high-ranking executive of an enterprise. The implication here is that an employee might be deceived into sending sensitive information when hackers use deep fakes like this.
5. Data Poisoning
Data poisoning is another aspect of browser security concerns that arises from the use of artificial intelligence within a web browser. As mentioned above, artificial intelligence is a type of technology that often requires some training to become acquainted with problem-solving algorithms. However, in the training of these AI solutions, cybercriminals have found a way of falsifying training data from machine language models. The implication of these actions is that they often lead to leakages of data and the spread of misinformation that can damage the reputation of an individual or organization.
Source: unite.ai
Conclusion
Browsers play a huge role for many individuals and organizations that are ardent internet users; however, there are targets for cyber attackers. Moreover, the use of AI solutions is creating new web security concerns for users, but the most important thing is identifying these common attacks from AI solutions.
Above is the definition of AI technology and some of the web browser security challenges it poses to users. Some of this is the promotion of social engineering attacks, privacy risks, ransomware, and many others.
