Across all industry sectors worldwide, organisations are integrating artificial intelligence (AI) tools into their systems, relying on them to increase speed and efficiency. For threat actors, this makes them a new key target, expanding organisations’ attack surface.

While some AI tools used across an organisation will be a known quantity, employees may be using other tools without organisational oversight. To add complexity, organisations may not be able to control the overall security of these tools if they are using third-party software.

The threats to AI systems vary depending on the objectives of the threat actor. As AI systems integrate more deeply into organisational operations, their complexity and levels of interconnectivity with critical systems will also increase. This expanded connectivity provides more entry points for attackers. It also means a breach in one system can cascade across an organisation’s entire network.

Attacks on AI systems may not be obvious to spot. They might be executed over a long period and could introduce a significant new integrity risk to organisations globally. We have observed a 36% increase from 2022 to 2023 in integrity-type attacks impacting internal AI databases and systems, using poisoning and abuse attack techniques. We expect attacks on AI systems to grow significantly in 2024. We also expect threat actors to continue to target AI systems to extract sensitive information from them, manipulate systems to generate inaccurate or inappropriate content, and target the AI systems’ training data itself to degrade or manipulate its integrity. Such attacks can therefore severely compromise an organisation's integrity, operations and reputation.

Understanding how to identify, protect against and respond to attacks targeted at these systems is now crucial. Businesses relying on AI-driven capabilities must ensure they are protected against threats targeted across these attack surfaces to fully realise the benefits that come with digitalisation.

 

Download our whitepaper to learn more about expanded attack surfaces and protecting your organisation from digital threats in the age of AI.

 

Digital Threats in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Understand the threats and risks posed by the rapid evolution of AI in today's world

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