Generative artificial intelligence (generative AI) has been around for a while now, helping forward-thinking enterprises and individuals boost the effectiveness of work processes and outcomes. It is a subset of machine learning that deals with creating algorithms capable of generating new content – text, imagery, audio, and synthetic data – mainly using existing data.
Generative AI helps businesses step up their personalization game by developing new and innovative ideas. They can sell smarter and more efficiently, irrespective of a company’s resources. However, like many other technologies, generative AI has its own risks.
A latest Salesforce survey shows that 71% of 500 senior IT leaders predict that generative AI is expected to bring new security risks to data. We can see that top generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, Dall-E, and Bard, are making headlines due to privacy concerns.
So, it is essential for tech experts to follow some cybersecurity measures to stay ahead of new threats while utilizing generative AI technology.
7 Ways to Ensure Cybersecurity Against Generative AI Threats
It is high time for people to understand threats related to generative AI and take essential steps to prevent such attacks. Below is our list of seven effective cybersecurity best practices to help IT experts prevent and reduce cyberattacks:
Adopt Zero-Trust Platforms
The primary step to staying secure is that companies should adopt zero-trust platforms. It is ideal to utilize these platforms that depend on anomaly detection rather than routine anti-virus software.
A zero-trust framework guarantees the adequate security of a company’s most valuable assets. It works by assuming that each connection and endpoint is seen as a threat.
Adopting a zero-trust framework gives benefits like maximum protection of resources, scalable remote workforce, limited attack surface, and simplified cloud-based security.
Essentially, it logs and inspects all corporate network traffic, limits, and controls access to the network, and verifies and secures network resources. This shift boosts threat detection and reduction, thereby decreasing cybersecurity breaches.
Implement Checks and Balances in Processes
In addition to relying on fully automated operations, which may be vulnerable to cyberattacks, it is essential for IT experts to fine-tune their processes with checks and balances. There should be a comprehensive strategy that involves human involvement to help safeguard against potential threats.
As per the top Gartner’s top cybersecurity trends for 2023, a human-focused approach to cybersecurity is necessary for mitigating security failures. Human oversight helps companies detect and weed out any fraudulent content and improve business-risk decisions in general.
Enhance Data Loss Prevention Control
Keeping the risks associated with this AI technology in focus, companies should prioritize tightening their data loss prevention controls at endpoints and perimeters to keep their digital assets safe. This ensures that the company’s digital assets will not fall into the hands of fraudsters.
Companies should embed controls into their model-building operations and allot required resources to ensure that their models act in accordance with the greatest extent of security regulations.
There should be governance frameworks for managing AI projects, applications, and teams to mitigate risks and ensure adherence to different standards. Furthermore, ethical considerations must be set in business processes to reduce inclination and ensure the use of technology remains limited for ethical purposes.
Rely on Security Tools
Another practical approach is to use a range of security tools to protect against potential cyber threats related to generative AI. Cybersecurity tools are essential to secure data transmission when professionals use generative AI algorithms.
Companies should consider using anti-virus software to detect and remove viruses and other harmful malware, like adware, ransomware, and spyware, on devices, networks, and systems. A number of decent anti-virus software are available that find and prevent malicious code injected into generative AI models.
Many anti-virus programs come with an auto-update feature and enable the systems to search for new threats or viruses regularly. These tools provide additional services like scanning emails to ensure they are free from malicious URLs and attachments.
Manage Passwords Wisely
It is common for cybercriminals to gain direct access to sensitive business information through employee credentials. Social engineering and brute force attacks are some of the many methods that can be used for this purpose.
Companies should prefer using specialized password management tools to prevent such attacks. Such solutions come with password encryption capabilities and give full control over your employees’ credentials, minimizing the risk of account compromise.
But those who trust their employees to manage their own passwords, consider giving the following recommendations:
- Avoid sharing credentials with others
- Use different passwords for all accounts
- Keep separate accounts for personal and official use
- Change passwords at least three to four times a year
- Generate secure passwords with digits, special characters, and capital letters
Employ Biometric Technology
Biometric technology ensures quick authentication, secure access management, and accurate employee identification. It verifies users’ identities in a reliable manner before granting access to valuable assets.
One widely-used branch of biometrics is behavioral biometrics, which ensures secure user activity. Experts should employ it as it enables them to analyze the different ways in which users interact with input devices, like typing speed and style and rhythm of cursor movement, and notifies if abnormal behavior is detected for immediate reaction.
Use Multi-factor Authentication (MFA)
Tech experts consider multi-factor authentication (MFA) as the most effective security control that adds an additional layer of security. This security technology help companies protect on-premises and public cloud data.
Companies should consider activating it since it prevents bad actors from logging in even if they have an account password. MFA enables professionals to distinguish among users of shared accounts, enhancing their access control capabilities.
Bottom Line
In all, the speedy growth of generative AI technology presents opportunities and risks. The number of threats of AI-run social engineering attacks continues to increase with every passing day. Both organizations and individuals alike must stay well-informed, exercise vigilance, and implement the effective measures for cybersecurity we described in this post to stay a step ahead of bad actors.
