Symantec notifies of AI-enabled Cyber Crimes



According to Security software specialist, Symantec, expects artificial intelligence-enabled cyber attacks to cause an explosion of network penetrations, personal data thefts, and an epidemic-level spread of intelligent computer viruses in the coming years, leading to a full-fledged arms race between cyber criminals and security.
 
Senior Director at Symantec research labs, Brian Witten, said: “We think attackers are leveraging automation in building their attacks for a long time. In that sense, it is only a matter of time they start leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) a lot more aggressively. It will be their AI against our AI and whoever builds the smartest AI will end up winning the arms race.”
 
Many cyber security firms are using recent advances in AI and machine learning (ML), to secure systems and data of their clients as attacks get more complex and sophisticated causing unprecedented levels of disruption.

The number of malware variants jumped 357 million in 2016 from 275 million two years earlier; email malware rate also soared from 1 in 244 to 1 in 131 during the same period, according to a report by Symantec in April this year. Ransomware detections touched 463,841 in 2016.

McAfee Chief Technology Officer, Steve Grobman, said in a recent blog post, that in the field of cyber security, as long as there is a shortage of human talent, the industry must rely on technologies such as AI and ML to amplify the capabilities of the humans.

However, as long as there are human adversaries behind cybercrime and cyber warfare, there will always be a critical need for human intellect teamed with technology.

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