By: Nicko Cajes; Northern Bukidnon State College, Philippines
Abstract
The quick adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) into the world of technology has given a significant boost to a variety of fields, especially in cybersecurity. However, these advancements don’t just come with the benefits of the legal users but also make malicious activities more sophisticated. This paper explores the role of AI in its effectiveness in shaping modern cybersecurity, this includes how AI is used in cyber-attacks, the challenges of defending against AI-based cyber-attacks, and the use of AI in cyber-defense. The paper additionally points out the ethical challenges that must be considered while creating transparent and dependable AI-driven security solutions, guaranteeing a safer online environment for all users.
Introduction
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) has made a significant impact on the previously unknown speed of technology [1]. It spread quickly across a variety of domains, attracting both praise and criticism due to its expanding application, which has both benefits and drawbacks in cybersecurity and has become a standard component in the development and operation phases of modern technologies [2]. However, according to VPNRank, complaints about AI-powered cybersecurity attacks were expected to reach 1.31 million in 2024 with potential losses reaching $18.6 billion, a 22% increase from 0.88 million in 2023 [3]. This indicates that AI is now playing a role in enabling faster and more sophisticated attacks across digital platforms.
How AI is Used in Cyber Attacks
In the age of artificial intelligence, hackers are using AI-powered methods to get through the most powerful cyber defenses. The cybersecurity landscape is changing because of these AI-driven hacks, which employ sophisticated machine learning algorithms to find vulnerabilities, forecast trends, and take advantage of flaws. Its effectiveness and quick data processing provide the hacker with a tactical advantage that can result in quick attacks or damage [4]. Traditional cybersecurity methods are no longer enough to combat sophisticated attacks since AI cyberattacks adapt and evolve in real time.
The advent of AI paved the way for a seamless sophisticated attack by the hacker, integrating the advancements of this technology made their attack phases proceed faster. Here are the following examples on how AI can enhance cyberattacks [5].
AI-driven Phishing Attack: In an improved AI-driven attack, generative AI can be utilized to produce realistic and highly customized emails, SMS messages, phone conversations, or social media engagement strategy to accomplish a desired outcome. These attacks typically have the same objectives as social engineering attacks, which include obtaining sensitive data, breaking into a system, obtaining money, or convincing a victim to install a harmful program on their device.
Deepfake: Because deepfakes can produce AI-generated video, images, or audio, they are particularly useful during the social engineering stage of a cyberattack. This is accomplished by using already existing footage of a client or corporate leader to create a fake voice recording or video footage. Attackers can use this to make it sound like it is legitimate to the victim and give them instructions to perform a specific action, like transferring money, changing a password, or granting access to a system.
Adversarial Attack Using AI/ML: Through manipulation and intentional information, the application of adversarial AI/ML techniques to target various aspects of model development and operation, such as the model’s input data, training data, and parameters or structure of a pre-trained AI/ML model, may significantly reduce the accuracy or performance of AI/ML systems.
Ransomware Attacks: AI-enabled ransomware attacks use AI to enhance their functionality or automate some parts of their assault process. It can be used to investigate targets, find weaknesses in systems, encrypt data, and gradually change or update ransomware files to make it harder to find using cybersecurity technologies.
The sophistication that AI can provide on cyber-attackers really is something that should be taken an eye for, as with the help of it, attacks can be difficult to detect and will look legitimate to the victim which will lead them to fall for the trick.
Challenges of Defending Against AI Attacks
The actual difficulty in identifying AI-driven cyberthreats originates from the fact that the endpoint detection response (EDR) and traditional anti-virus databases rely on known malware signatures. This is because identifying a threat involves more than just identifying the software’s actions, it includes figuring out the purpose of the behavior, such as a piece of code that uploads files to a server, which could be a backup file or data theft software [6]. This is where the problem of industry arises as the program’s behavior may be the same, but its aim may be completely different. The current systems find it difficult and time-consuming to determine the intent.
One of the key components that will allow AI to evade detection and maximize the harm they cause to cyberspace is their ability to make better decisions by learning from historical information. Beyond human comprehension, AI-driven cyberthreats will use a great deal of computer resources and cyberspace, which can lead to a more rapid, unpredictable, and complex attack that will be difficult for even the most capable cybersecurity team to counter [7].
AI in Cyber Defense
AI technology itself can be used to protect against AI-powered cyber threats, in fact the cybersecurity industry has started to rely on AI-powered security tools together with traditional security measures [8], the following are the advantages of using AI-powered security tools in combating today’s advanced cyber threats [9].
Baseline Establishment: To distinguish between malicious and non-malicious actions, this can track all occurrences and analyze large datasets to establish a baseline of normal behavior. This baseline will then be compared with unusual behavior experienced.
Anomaly Detection: Artificial intelligence (AI) tools can be used to detect anomalous user behavior that may eventually be interpreted as an attack. Examples of anomalous behavior include deleting vast amounts of data, changing permissions on files and other resources, requesting access from a new location, and unusual logging in attempts [10].
Attack Prevention Abilities: Artificial intelligence (AI) systems will be able to recognize potential dangers and take predefined preventative steps to prevent the attack, such as logging users out and issuing alert notifications.
Real-Time Monitoring: It can continuously monitor the production system’s operations, which can aid in promptly addressing security incidents as they occur and possibly minimizing damage [11].
Predictive Analysis: It can examine past data as well as present patterns or actions, which can greatly aid in taking preventative action and avoiding exploitation [12].
Advantages of using AI in cyber defense have shown effectiveness against the sophisticated cyber-attack threats nowadays, utilizing AI to its best potential, the difficulty of handling new variants of cyber-attacks can somehow be neutralized and even be prevented. Nevertheless, while creating this kind of sophisticated identification malicious activity system online, several factors must be carefully considered, like the privacy and data protection. Addressing algorithmic bias, which will outline the possible bias that may result from unbalanced training data, algorithmic architecture, and the process of making decisions. A clear chain of command that describes how AI decisions and auditing and accountability systems work is necessary for accountability and transparency. These are only a few of the factors that must be considered when developing AI for cyber defense, if these ethical considerations are met, systems can be relied upon in terms of their application [10].
Conclusion
AI has enabled a lot of opportunity both for the offense and defense in the cybersecurity field. Its benefits have highlighted its huge potential and its ability in easily adopting this digital era. While it has become used to cyber-attack, its effectiveness in detecting those attacks have also proven its excellent capability in anomaly detection and predictive analysis. The continuous battle in the cyber security field on defending against the advanced cyber threats is still on the line, having AI as one of the greatest factors in solving it. Given the fact that AI doesn’t only make the cybersecurity advance, the need to consider the sophisticated attack techniques of the attackers needs to be paid attention as well.
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Cite As
Cajes N. (2025) The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Shaping Modern Cybersecurity Attacks, Insights2Techinfo, pp.1