Rise of the bots: Friend or foe for cybersecurity?

“The next generation of bots is going to be an amazing vector for identity theft,” said Tailscale CEO Avery Pennarun.

“There’s no way we’re going to be able to hold back the torrent of new ways of doing scams and stealing identity – without technology.”

Avery’s words capture the promise and peril of artificial intelligence.

Bots powered by generative AI tools are exploding in popularity. But what does this mean for cybersecurity?

The Tailscale CEO believes that because bots can mimic humans, security experts need technology that can distinguish between authentic users and imposters.

According to Rajesh Ramanand, co-founder and CEO of ecommerce fraud protection platform Signifyd, the problem will only grow as AI generates increasingly human-like content.

“Today, you can go into ChatGPT and ask it to write an email … even if your English is not the best. You can pull off the most beautiful looking email that can be sent to my mom, and she can look at it and say, ‘Well, this looks real, this might be real,’ and she may click on it,” said the CEO.

But Rajesh argued that security experts should focus less on detecting bots and more on identifying suspicious patterns of behaviour that signal fraud, regardless of whether a bot or human is behind it.

The CEO also noted that AI could help retailers reduce false positives that are turning away legitimate customers – something that is becoming a major problem as security tech attempts to filter out bots.

The cybersecurity implications of AI remain unclear. But one thing is certain: cybersecurity experts need to understand both the powers and limitations of this technology.

Those who learn to harness it while mitigating the risks stand to gain an advantage.

Subscribe to 🎙️ the Next Stage 🎙️ wherever you get your podcasts, or tune in above on the Spotify player.

Signifyd co-founder and CEO Rajesh Ramanand, and Avery Pennarun, co-founder and CEO of Tailscale, were in conversation with Sam Sabin, cybersecurity reporter for Axios, on FullSTK at Collision 2023.

Check out our related tracks at Web Summit 2023: AI Academy, DeepTech and Machine.

Main image: Web Summit