Table of Contents
With the quick adoption of AI technology, things have revolutionized positively. But this quick adoption has also raised the risk and volume of attacks by negatively using this technology. Taking the right steps at the right time is highly important.
Defenders have already started recognizing these threats and they have started using the power of AI to build a strong cyber security balance. It is highly important to create strong shields to protect people from threat actors.
Before understanding how to keep up with threat actors, it is important to understand how threat actors can misuse AI for their benefit.
Microsoft has collaborated with OpenAI and has researched growing threats with the evolution of AI. During the research, they have focused on determining activities with known threat actors. For instance, prompt-injections attempted misuse of Large Language Models (LLMs) and fraud.
After doing the research, it was observed that threat actors are using LLM technology as an additional productive tool in the offensive landscape.
Lately, there haven’t been any new AI-powered attacks noticed from threat actors. However, Microsoft (in partnership with Open AI) is still doing in-depth research in this field to determine the possible threats.
The primary objective behind the partnership of Microsoft and OpenAI is to make sure that people responsibly use AI technology. They want to maintain the ethical use of this new technology to ensure the safety of the community from potential misuse of this technology.
To achieve this objective, Microsoft and OpenAI have taken several measures to seize and disrupt the accounts of threat actors. Also, they have taken steps to improve the safety measures for OpenAI LLM technology use. These measures will protect people from scammers who want to badly use AI technology. Also, they are striving hard to use generative AI to disrupt threat actors.
Technique Proposed For Detecting And Blocking Threat Actors
No doubt growing technology also needs strong cybersecurity measures to avoid its misuse. The evolution of technology is not just attracting people, but it is also alluring for malicious users. The progress of technology creates a demand for strong cybersecurity and safety measures.
Recently, President Biden issued an executive order on safe, secure, and trustworthy artificial intelligence usage. AI systems, when used negatively, can have a bad impact on national and economic security. Therefore, this executive order is issued by President Biden. Actions taken by Microsoft and OpenAI are significantly improving the safety measures for the responsible use of AI models. All the right measures will help in the safe creation, implementation, and use of AI models.
OpenAI in collaboration with Microsoft, announced principles shaping Microsoft’s policies and actions that help in reducing risk associated with misuse of AI tools. Also, they announced APIs by nation-state advanced persistent threats (APTs), advanced persistent manipulators (APMs), and cybercriminal syndicates.
Main Principles Are::Â Â
- Determine Malicious Threat Actors And Taking Bad Action
Microsoft tracks malicious threat actors who want to badly use any Microsoft AI application programming interfaces (APIs), services, or systems, including nation-state APT or APM. Upon detection, Microsoft will take the right measures to stop them and disrupt their activities like disabling the use of accounts, limiting access, and so on.
- Notify Other AI Service Providers
Whenever Microsoft detects any threat actor using any other AI tool from different AI service providers, then Microsoft immediately sends a notification to that AI service provider. Along with notifying, Microsoft will also share the supporting details with that AI service provider. This data will help those AI service providers to deal with those specific threat actors. Finally, they can take the right action as per their policies.
- Making Connections with Different Stakeholders
Microsoft wants to collaborate with different stakeholders to prevent the misuse of AI. The main idea behind the collaboration is to exchange useful information about threat actors that could help in detecting malicious users. By collaborations with stakeholders, it is possible to promote consistent, collective, and effective responses against threat actors.
- Maintain Transparency
Maintaining transparency is an important step in the ongoing efforts for the responsible use of AI. Microsoft has decided to keep the public and stakeholders informed about their actions against threat actors. Also, Microsoft will keep people informed about the nature and extent of the use of AI by threat actors. Microsoft has promised that it will keep putting in efforts to improve the use of Artificial Intelligence. At the same time, they will also prioritize the safety of people while making advancements in the technologies with respect for human rights and ethical standards.
All the above-mentioned principles announced by Microsoft show responsible AI practices that this company will follow. Microsoft is following these principles to adhere to broader commitments to strengthen international laws.
Microsoft and OpenAI’s Combine Efforts For Preventing AI Platforms
Now, it is clear that Microsoft And OpenAI collaborated to take the right actions at the right time against threat actors. More than 300 threat actors which includes 160 nation-state actors and 50 ransomware groups are tracked by Microsoft Threat Intelligence.
Professionals at Microsoft and automated tools work together to connect the dots and unearth attackers. The team of experts at Microsoft is continually striving to find threat actors and take the right measures against them.
Microsoft observes the activities of potential threat actors and shares the collected data with OpenAI to get in-depth information on potential malicious use of their platforms. With this information, Microsoft can protect its customers from future threats and harm.
Summary
By doing continuous observation over the last few years, it has been revealed that threat actors are following similar trends in technology in parallel with their defender counterparts. Threat actors keep their eyes on advancements in AI and LLM technology to advance their attack techniques and achieve their malicious objectives. Threat actors like cybercrime groups, nation-state threat actors, etc. keep trying to determine the potential value of AI tools. The main objective is to overcome the barriers and use the potential of AI for their benefit. On the other side, defenders are striving to build strong security controls to prevent malicious attacks and provide a sense of security to users.
The threat actors may have different motives but they implement the same strategy for targeting and attacks. They start with collecting details about potential targeted industries, locations, etc. They offer help in coding, assistance in learning, and more. Microsoft in collaboration will AI will determine the strategy used by threat actors and prevent the bad usage of technology. This collaboration would be beneficial for users and they can use artificial intelligence with peace of mind.
