It is no secret that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is gradually driving the future as they are making significant waves across different industries. For Businesses, AI is a big story simply because of the numerous benefits they derive from it.
With AI, businesses improve by automating repetitive and manual tasks, reducing costs, solving complex problems, and enhancing accuracy and efficiency, leading to productivity in diverse departments.
AI poses a lot of security threats for businesses amidst all its pros. The pressure of following the trend (AI) has lured many companies into ignoring the Security threats associated with using AI.
This article will explain the significant generative AI security threats businesses face and how companies can mitigate these security threats to ensure continuous data privacy.
What is Generative AI?
Simply put, Generative Artificial Intelligence(AI) is a type of AI that enables its users to generate new content seamlessly. Generative AI allows businesses and other users to produce content such as images, code, simulations, animations, text, audio, video, sound, etc.
To accomplish this, generative AI models use machine learning and neural network techniques to learn the structures and patterns of their input training data, producing new data with corresponding properties. Some notable Generative AI tools include:
1. ChatGPT: ChatGPT stands for Chat Generative Pretrained Transformer and is a powerful generative AI tool created by OpenAI and launched in November 2022. Businesses can interact, ask questions, and prompt this AI-powered chatbot to generate stories, codes, texts, essays, etc for them. ChatGPT has a free and paid version. The paid version ChatGPT Plus has more features than the free version.
2. BARD: Bard is an AI-powered chatbot built by Google and released for public use in the UK and the US in March 2023. The Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA) by Google served as the engine for the newly launched AI chat service. Like ChatGPT, Businesses can prompt Bard to generate texts and answer questions.
3. DALL-E: DALL-E is another generative AI tool released by OpenAI. It generates photorealistic images based on the prompts users feed it with. In addition, DALL-E can be used for image editing, such as inpainting ( making changes within an image) and outpainting ( extending a photo beyond its original boundaries). DALL-E uses a neural network trained using pictures with textual descriptions to achieve all this.
Many businesses today have embraced these in-demand generative AI tools to increase the effectiveness of work operations and results. But the question remains: Are generative AI like ChatGPT, Bard, DALL-E, etc, safe?
What Generative AI Security Threats Do Businesses Face?
Although generative AI tools have numerous advantages, they pose severe cybersecurity threats that could harm businesses. These security threats include the following:
1. Data Breach and Privacy Risks: If proper secure file-sharing and antivirus software does not exist, businesses adopting generative AI tools suffer data breaches and privacy violations. Because of this, hostile actors may gain access to weak systems and alter the sensitive data they contain.
2. Copyright Violation: The output of generative AI technologies is from the vast volumes of internet-sourced data used to train them. For instance, if a worker asks a DALL-E-like AI tool to make an image, the computer will consult the enormous library of photos. These generative AI programs use these protected works without the authors’ consent, which could have legal repercussions for businesses.
3. Intellectual Property: Multiple types of intellectual property hazards are associated with the usage of generative AI. The content that the internet feeds the AI might be subject to legal restrictions. Additionally, there is an ongoing lawsuit on who owns the intellectual property AI produces.
4. Data Manipulation and Data Poisoning: Despite their immense capacity, AI tools constitute a security risk for businesses. Since AI tools are open-source, they are more susceptible to hacks, data breaches, and model poisoning. Model poisoning happens when nefarious data or code gets within an AI system. This attack may compromise the system, producing harmful or inaccurate results.
How to Mitigate Generative AI Security Threats
Below are some of the helpful tips businesses can follow to minimize generative AI Security Threats:
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Use Software and Security Tools: Businesses can embrace software and security tools to mitigate generative AI security threats. Some of these software and security tools are:
1. Sophos: Network security and unified threat management are two areas where Sophos excels. Sophos provides these services through its firewall, cloud, detection, and response solutions, and managed service. Because Sophos offers Key malware, phishing websites, and ransomware avoidance, more organizations trust them than any other for cybersecurity as a service.
Much of today’s cybersecurity products and services aren’t built to face modern challenges. It’s too slow and reactive to threats rather than proactive. Threats grow more complex every day, and existing cybersecurity offerings struggle to keep up. There’s a steady stream of new malware created every single day. Powered by A.I Sophos utilizes deep learning technologies to secure critical business information 24/7. You can get started with Sophos here.
2. TrojAI: The applied Physics Lab at Johns Hopkins University developed TroiAI to detect malware patterns and AI model poisoning.
3. IBM Cloud Identity and Access Management: A platform that helps guard against malicious code injection, unauthorized access, and data loss and offers enterprises safe encryption, authentication services, and multifactor authentication. To know more about this, visit IBM Cloud Identity and Access Management.
4. OpenAI Text Classifier, a secure text categorization tool created by the ChatGPT team, can determine if a human or an AI-created material.
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) Systems Audit: Businesses should hire or use in-house cyber security and Artificial intelligence (AI) experts to routinely audit their systems. Penetration tests, vulnerability assessments, and system reviews performed by these experts can help in systems audits.
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) Emergency Response Plan: As the risks associated with artificial intelligence increase, businesses may experience a cyber security attack despite having protection safeguards. Companies should have an AI incident response plan that is well-written and addresses issues like investigation, remediation, and containment to recover from such an occurrence.
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Educate and Train Employees on Proper AI Usage and Risk Management: Businesses should work with cybersecurity and AI specialists to teach employees about AI risk management. They should develop the skill of fact-checking emails, as these emails may contain AI-created phishing scams. More so, they should refrain from opening any unsolicited program that might include malware made by artificial intelligence.
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Handle Business Data appropriately: Handling business data is another way businesses can mitigate generative AI security threats. As previously established, AI depends on its training data to produce accurate results. Businesses must spend money on cutting-edge backup, access control, and encryption technology to shield AI from data contamination.
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Limit Sharing Sensitive Information with AI: Consider caution when providing data about your company to AI software since it may be vulnerable to data breaches. It’s depressing that more individuals are entrusting AI with their private data without understanding the risks to their privacy. AI dialogues are recorded for quality control and made available to teams in charge of AI system upkeep. As a result, business owners and employees should avoid providing AI with any sensitive information.
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Keep up with the security threats of AI: Businesses should keep up-to-date with the most recent security trends and best practices in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to guarantee their business data is constantly safe.
The generative AI security threats to businesses do not justify ignoring the benefits of using generative AI in business. Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing all sectors and making life easy. However, businesses can safeguard themselves from any potential security risks connected with using AI technology by training staff, making the necessary security investments, and putting the appropriate tools and regulations in place.
