The Ethics of AI in Cybersecurity

By: Dadapeer Agraharam Shaik, Department of Computer Science and Technology, Student of Computer Science and technology, Madanapalle Institute of Technology and Science, Angallu,517325, Andhra Pradesh.

Abstract:

In an overall perspective of examining the effect of advanced technology on the fraternity of cybersecurity AI has had a positive influence especially in detecting and avoiding cyber risks and threats. Also in the same regard, attention should be paid to a fact that along with the progress of technological development in this important sphere, there are certain ethical concerns which should be taken into consideration throughout explanation of the proper usage of the ROC for AI. However, this article offers a prospect how the existence and application of AI in cybersecurity can disrupt principles of ethics such as: how is AI related to prejudice, privacy, openness, responsibility, and misuse. Thus, by critically analyzing these aspects, the work will endeavor to identify and detail the ethical considerations and principles of AI usage in cybersecurity.

Keyword’s : Ethics, Artificial Intelligence , Cyber security.

1.Introduction:

The AI systems present the abilities of large-scale data processing with a view of identifying elements that may harbour attacks and predicting threats accurately. But the blending of AI in cybersecurity also presents profound ethical questions that need to discuss and debated on. Some of these concerns include the aspect of bias when the AI systems are being used, privacy, an aspect of explaining the decision-making processes of AI, aspects of responsibility in the development of the AI systems, and the vices of the misuse of the AI systems. Overcoming these ethical issues is essential to guarantee that incorporation of the AI technology in cybersecurity is productive in improving security as well as satisfying the ethical characteristics of the society. This article focuses on the ethical considerations of AI in the context of cyber security; it describes the important questions and offers steps to address the ethical threats as well as to harness the benefits of applying AI in cyberspace for enhanced protection.

2.Strategic Autonomy and Sovereignty in the Digital Era

Thus, the notions of strategic autonomy and sovereignty have slowly become the most important political objectives during the recent years due to the threat to the national sovereignty. This perception is supported by such factors as revolutionary technologies spearheading the digitisation process, increase in cybercrime and occurrence, increased geopolitics tensions, which include the tensions between US, EU, China and Russia and other international tensions. These dynamics point to the emerging threats to the so-called sovereignty as the traditional concept is challenged by the new generation cyber threats[1].

Understanding the Sovereignty Gap

Cyber opens up a ‘sovereignty gap’ and state and non-state actors incorporate cyber means to shape and destablise. The conditions are evident in continuous disruption of the status quo, the state participants using cyber inventions v ilely, and non-state actors from state surrogates to terrorists, and the global platforms, tip the balance in the state based international system.

Strategic Autonomy: It can be seen that organ is a means to sovereignty, in a way implying that it is a necessity for sovereignty, while also threatening it[2].

According to policymakers, only strategic autonomy can be the foundation for the goal of sovereignty to be realised and preserved. They usually refer to sovereignty or strategic independence by conjunction with priceless resources such as data sovereignty, digital sovereignty, technological sovereignty, and defence, military, and financial strategic autonomy. Strategic autonomy is therefore understood as the capacity, in terms of capabilities, to decide and act regarding the fundamental features of some of one’s longer term futures in the economy, society, or its institutions.[3]

Fig.1 . Strategic Autonomy and Sovereignty in the Digital Era

Approaches to Strategic Autonomy

States generally adopt three primary approaches to address the challenges of strategic autonomy in the digital age: States generally adopt three primary approaches to address the challenges of strategic autonomy in the digital age:

  1. Risk Management:
  • Objective: Maintain the risks to sovereignty tolerable.
  • Focus: Stresses on cyber-readiness to contain and rapid business recovery after cyber threats.
  • Ethical Considerations: It means that the protective measures maintain high levels of civil liberties and privacy rights as well.
  1. Strategic Partnerships:
  • Aim: Establish alliances with similar countries and non-governmental organizations to shape the development of main technologies and their implementation in systems.
  • Focus: Cooperation amongst nations regarding making choices relating to critical internet assets and resources.
  • Ethical Considerations: This therefore implies; partnerships must be characterized by loyalty in addition to mutualism between partners and members.
  1. Promoting Global Common Goods:
  • Objective: Support and defend key Internet resources as the global public good.
  • Focus: Collaboration to protect what we all have on the internet at large.
  • Ethical Considerations : Fulfilling national and global responsibilities, ensuring fairness regarding digital ownership rights, avoiding oligopolies in which leading corporations or states can dominate.[3]

The fourth strategy that is built on no external support is hardly possible for anyone but such giants as the US or China.

However, such an approach may increase inefficiency and unravel the globally interrelated supply chains that can have disastrous consequences for world trade.

Ethical considerations in AI concerning strategic autonomy.

Looking at these thoughts through a lens of sovereignty and focusing on ethical aspects of AI use leads to a number of specifics:

  1. Bias and Fairness:
  • AI systems should be engineered so as not to introduce biases that might undermine sovereignty or give unfair advantages.
  • Making data used in training AI more diverse and representative to prevent bias.
  1. Privacy and Surveillance:
  • Trade-offs between cybersecurity requirements and individual privacy rights.
  • Strong data protection measures must be implemented with transparent surveillance practices
  1. Transparency and Accountability:
  • Building trust among the public by making AI decision-making processes transparent
  • Clear roles for responsibility and accountability in deploying AI systems
  1. Security and Misuse:
  • Using legal mechanisms to preserve the integrity of AI from malicious actors
  • Preventing abuses by enacting appropriate legal safeguards against this technology’s exploitation.[3]

3. What Are Ethical Considerations in Cybersecurity with AI?

AI and privacy involve a lot of major ethical questions, showing that it is crucial to employ the techniques of artificial intelligence with ethical amplification and augmentation approaches. A major concern is the capacity of intelligent protection mechanisms to collect and analyze large amounts of data, which in principle can compromise privacy. On one hand, the privacy of consumer’s personal information needs to be safeguarded at the same level that ethical issues must be identified immediately.

Privacy Violations

A problem with AI systems is their capacity to gather vast amounts of information which, in turn, poses a threat to privacy. Such systems may require the use of large databases in order to operate efficiently, and may involve use of peoples’ private details. An important ethical issue that arises from the use of this data is the danger of this sensitive information getting into the wrong hands. It is, therefore, crucial to have a proper and well-implemented set up of data protection as well as clear guidelines of data utilization, to avoid these risks.

Bias and Discrimination

Other social problem related to AI is that the systems can be inherently prejudiced. What is important to realize is that algorithms, which are built to be neutral try to emulate the prejudices inherent in the training sets. This may lead to distorted outcomes and injustice done to some people. When it comes to threat intelligence, especially when employing bias-capable algorithms, it turns into a situation when some people are recognized as threats or, conversely, some people are unfairly regarded as innocent. It is notable here that to avoid compromising the ethical standards and to minimize the chances of prejudice in the delivery of the effective AI protection solutions, it is wise to ensure equal treatment.

Transparency and Explain ability

Another aspect that is of great concern on the society is the crispiness and the logic in executing the AI algorithms. Issues come up when the reasoning abilities of AI systems are obscure which makes the users to have no idea on how decisions are arrived at. Thus, to employ AI in a proper manner, certain and logical system decisions must be made. Concerning safety, human users have to be able to understand the context of risk management of AI systems in order to be confident in it, as well as to know their responsibilities.

Accountability and Responsibility

AI cybersecurity has issues regarding one’s ability to accept blame and liability when problems arise, or when the system cannot prevent an attack. Ethical practice engulfs the holder of the title accountable for mistakes or the unanticipated in circumstances caused by the application of these tools. These difficulties can be merely countered by outlining more principal duties and responsibilities to deal with it, and then practically fill these duties with ethical AI practices.

Security Hazards

Identity threats, including adversarial risks, build multiple layers of ethicality. Situational attacks can be seen when the AI systems are made to work in an unconventional or perverse mode. It is important to strengthen the AI-based protection solutions against such threats that can hinder their ethical application. Other ethical issues involve AI hacking, and power-related issues especially in the provision of physical resources. It is also implied that higher AI will result in higher resource polarization, which will benefit only the rich. One way that ethical safeguards have to be put in place is through the protection of technology and resources such that all members of the society can have a fair chance at accessing technology.

Global Implications

Other factors that affect the ethicality of AI and online safety are global events. Thus, because the AI systems are networked, AI systems in one nation can affect systems in other nations. Ethical issues that can be derived from this are, international cohesion, norms and preventing harm or conflict in fields of AI related hacking. It is required to follow the legal and ethical standards around the world to meet with privacy and data protection standards keenly worldwide. [4]

Conclusion:

Integrating AI into cybersecurity has a lot of benefits in improving cyber threat detection, prevention, and mitigation. However, these advantages have their disadvantages and therefore must be tackled for AI to be used responsibly. We can exploit the potential of AI to do this while at the same time acting ethically and following societal norms through bias reduction, privacy safeguarding measures, making it transparent and accountable as well as preventing misuse. The establishment of all-inclusive ethical codes and regulatory frameworks is vital to deal with intricacies when using AI in cybersecurity so that security is enhanced while upholding moral standards.

Reference:

  1. M. Rahaman, B. Chappu, N. Anwar, and P. K. Hadi, “Analysis of Attacks on Private Cloud Computing Services that Implicate Denial of Services (DoS),” vol. 4, 2022.
  2. M. Rahaman, C.-Y. Lin, and M. Moslehpour, “SAPD: Secure Authentication Protocol Development for Smart Healthcare Management Using IoT,” in 2023 IEEE 12th Global Conference on Consumer Electronics (GCCE), Oct. 2023, pp. 1014–1018. doi: 10.1109/GCCE59613.2023.10315475.
  3. P. Timmers, “Ethics of AI and Cybersecurity When Sovereignty is at Stake,” Minds Mach., vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 635–645, Dec. 2019, doi: 10.1007/s11023-019-09508-4.
  4. K. Kaushik, A. Khan, A. Kumari, I. Sharma, and R. Dubey, “Ethical Considerations in AI-Based Cybersecurity,” in Next-Generation Cybersecurity: AI, ML, and Blockchain, K. Kaushik and I. Sharma, Eds., Singapore: Springer Nature, 2024, pp. 437–470. doi: 10.1007/978-981-97-1249-6_19.
  5. Gupta, B. B., Tewari, A., Cvitić, I., Peraković, D., & Chang, X. (2022). Artificial intelligence empowered emails classifier for Internet of Things based systems in industry 4.0. Wireless networks, 28(1), 493-503.
  6. Jain, A. K., & Gupta, B. B. (2022). A survey of phishing attack techniques, defence mechanisms and open research challenges. Enterprise Information Systems, 16(4), 527-565.

Cite As

Shaik D.A. (2024) The Ethics of AI in Cybersecurity, Insights2Techinfo, pp.1

73750cookie-checkThe Ethics of AI in Cybersecurity
Share this:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.