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Susi O'Neill

Susi O’Neill is the Editor-in-Chief of Secure Futures and host of business tech podcast Insight Story. She’s a seasoned creative who’s led business content programs for brands including EY, Mastercard and Unilever. Off the clock, she’s a musician and performer who gives international performances playing theremin, the world’s first electronic instrument.

Latest stories by Susi

behind the screens

Zero-day: Birth of a new threat

  • Enterprise cybersecurity
  • min read
    • They're inside your system but no one knows how they got there – or how to stop them. These destructive attacks are called zero-day threats, because your security team will have zero days to prepare. Zero-day attacks involve cybercriminals using vulnerabilities no one knows about. They're hard to detect and can go on for years. Zero-day: Birth of a New Threat is Tomorrow Unlocked's latest film in the hacker:HUNTER Behind the Screens series. Michael Gregg, CEO of Managed Service Provider Catalyst Network Solutions, discusses these attacks and his clever way to trick cybercriminals into giving up their secrets. He also shares ways to spot these sometimes-subtle attacks. Understanding zero-day attacks While you may not have heard of zero-day attacks, some of the most well-known cyberattacks fall into this category, such as WannaCry and BlueKeep. But what does it mean? Software developers are always looking out for vulnerabilities hackers could use to gain access to systems through their software. When you receive software updates, these often include 'patches' for recently discovered security holes. "It's called zero-day because that's exactly how long you've had to prepare for it," says Gregg. Zero-day attacks might include reaching a vulnerable system using phishing – manipulative emails to users aiming to convince them to open a file or visit a malicious site. That action downloads the attacker's malware, which infiltrates user files. It can take time for developers to find the vulnerability that allowed the attack. In recent years, hackers have become faster at exploiting vulnerabilities soon after discovery. Zero-day attacks are especially dangerous because only attackers know about them. Once they have access through a zero-day vulnerability, criminals can attack immediately or wait for the best time. What is a Managed Service Provider (MSP?) Gregg's company, Catalyst Network Solutions, is a Kaspersky partner Managed Service Provider (MSP.) MSPs offer cybersecurity-as-a-service. Rather than or as well as an inhouse cybersecurity team, businesses hire MSPs to take care of their cybersecurity. Using MSPs makes it easier for businesses to have a range of cybersecurity expertise on-hand in a market where hiring cyber experts can be challenging. MSPs typically provide services to multiple companies and organizations, giving them broad-based knowledge of cyberthreats and cyber solutions. With the wide range of business tech that needs securing today – from light switches to security cameras to fridges – the value of wide-ranging experience is rising by the day. Tricking cybercriminals with their own tricks The data tricks cybercriminals into using, and so revealing, their zero-day methods. This has allowed Gregg's team to prevent and stop attacks faster. Preventing zero-day attacks As soon as a zero-day threat is understood, software developers will release updates to patch it, so your business should ensure it always installs updates promptly. If you can't stop a zero-day attack happening, there are ways to ensure it's caught early. Gregg advises "There's never a call that's not worth making," when it comes to cybersecurity. Signs of zero-day attacks can be subtle. "If your mouse is moving in a weird way, you're getting out-of-place keystrokes or your computer's running slowly," let the cyber professionals know – whether you have an internal team or a Managed Service Provider.
Cyber-Immunity, dynamic clothes, earth 2050, predictions

Predictions for Earth 2050: How will cybersecurity change?

  • Cybersecurity
  • min read
    • If you're like me, having a long-term vision is a wonderful aspiration… frequently quashed by today's more screamingly imminent 'to do' list. Five-year plan?  I'm still working on the next five days. But the next five minutes? That's a no-brainer: let's get immersed in the futuristic predictions for the world in 2050, and the evolving role of cybersecurity in it. Cyber-immunity will intuitively protect our systems Predicted by: Eugene Kaspersky, CEO, Kaspersky In 2050, digital systems have moved up to a whole new level. They're no longer assistants making life easier for us mere mortals, they've become the basis of civilization – the very framework keeping the world functioning properly. This quantum leap forward has generated new requirements for the reliability and stability of artificial intelligence (AI). Since the romantic era around the turn of the 21st century, cyberattacks are not yet extinct, but they're now only a threat to outliers who reject modern standards of digital immunity. The situation resembles the fight against human diseases. Thanks to the success of vaccines, the terrible epidemics that once devastated entire cities in the 20th century are now a thing of the past. But for humans, diseases of the past that wiped out millions – like the plague or smallpox – have been replaced by new, highly resistant 'post-vaccination' diseases. Fortunately, for the machines, life is better; the initial designers of digital immunity made all the right preparations by borrowing the systemic approaches of living systems and humans. One of the pillars of cyber-immunity is digital intuition, the ability of AI systems to make the right decisions in conditions where the source data is insufficient to make a rational choice. There's no mysticism here: digital intuition is the logical continuation of machine learning. When the number and complexity of related self-learning systems exceeds a certain threshold, the quality of decision-making rises to a level that eludes rational understanding. An intuitive solution results from the superimposition of the experience of a huge number of machine-learning models, much like the result of the calculations of a quantum computer. Digital intuition – with its ability to instantly, and correctly, respond to unknown challenges –has helped build the digital security standards of this new technological era. The robot servants are uprising Predicted by: Vitaly Kamluk, Director, Global Research & Analysis Team, Kaspersky Busy workers rejoice! Help for your home is arriving. A robot servant will cook your meals, do your laundry and clean your apartment. These autonomous systems will be able to carry out many complex tasks using the processing power of a central intelligent system, and in tricky situations, they'll switch to remote technical support managed by real people. There will be mass attempts to hack these helpful robots by labor rights activists and criminals trying to blackmail their owners. Since the servants will all be equipped with cameras, microphones and sensors, they offer a unique viewing platform for home-based espionage. Expect compromises of the manufacturers' infrastructure and the implantation of malicious code in devices with the aim of enacting, en masse, attacks that could be serious. The man(less) mining machine Predicted by: Andrey Nikishin, formerly Future Technologies Project Director, Kaspersky Mining is a fully automated process; people are not needed and former miners regain their health. One robot extracts rock from the soil, the second cleans it, the third guards the perimeter, while the fourth delivers the purified ore to industrial consumers. A hacker who gains access to the system can reprogram individual robots so they take a small amount of the platinum ore to an unauthorized place. The guard robots are also hacked, so they're unaware of this theft. The big reveal of dynamic clothes Predicted by Vladislav Biryukov, Head of Consumer Social Media, Kaspersky Dynamic clothing is à la mode. The fabric's characteristics – color, pattern, lighting, transparency, and in advanced models, even the cut and length – can be automatically changed. Some people now wear shirts or dresses with variable transparency levels, which allows them to reveal more at any moment they choose. Few people 'program' their clothes by themselves; most enjoy free fashion patterns or, for the fashionistas, expensive programs from well-known designers. Initially lacking security, the process of getting a smart clothing upgrade has led to the emergence of a new kind of extortion. "Heading to a business meeting, sir? Transfer 10 bitcoins to this account number now, or we'll expose you!". The naked truth in the boardroom. Awkward. Not quite the transparency in business we were hoping to achieve in 2050. A quantum (computing) leap threatens cryptography Predicted by Alexey Malanov Cryptography is widely used in many spheres of online activity. It's no exaggeration to say that the world will experience a huge shock if suddenly everything that's encrypted today is unlocked. How cryptography works: some operations can be easily carried out in one direction, but they're very difficult to reverse. For example, an image can be quickly transformed into a picture puzzle, but to arrange all of the pieces back into the picture takes much longer. Modern public-key cryptography is based on this principle: I know two numbers, I have multiplied them and told everyone the answer. Now everyone can encrypt a message for me using the result of the multiplication, but only I can decipher this using the original multipliers. There are already quantum computers that allow you to quickly solve problems that seem to be circuit-breaking for conventional computers, like how to de-compose a composite number. The only obstacle to the end of the digital world – let's call it 'cryptocalypse' – is that quantum computers can only work with small numbers. But by 2050, quantum computing will allow security services or master criminals to access universal decryption, and they may choose to do bad things with it. For example, if a villain steals your credit card, he or she will immediately know your PIN. The ability to decipher brings with it the opportunity to forge: an ATM informs the bank one thousand dollars are withdrawn, but the villain falsifies the message to say only 10 dollars were taken out. We will need to develop new safety standards – fast. On the bright side, encryption helps with verification so you can be sure you're actually on your real bank's website, not a cleverly cloned fake, when you wire the ransom to keep your business suit from turning into your birthday suit. Phew! One challenge solved.
earth2050 robot

What will the future of work be like by 2050?

  • Future tech
  • min read
    • The world of work in 2050. If you're unlucky enough not to have retired by then, the working world will be a very different place to how it is today. The vision of the future for workers tends to scale from a nihilistic view of the robots taking our jobs (leaving us permanently trapped indoors, living entirely from Amazon Prime supplies), through to the utopia of the eradication of repetitive tasks using artificial intelligence. This will leave humans free to think, create and act (while never needing to leave your home…thanks to improved teleworking and those highly convenient Amazon delivery drones). But what do the experts think it will really be like? Robots have rights too Predicted by: Ian Pearson. Ian has been a full-time futurologist for over 25 years, tracking and predicting developments across a wide range of technology, business, society, politics and the environment. We see a picket line of robots in the city center. Their placards are plastered with slogans written in binary code. The widespread development of robots and artificial intelligence have necessitated the creation of a legal framework to protect them to regulate the rights of intelligent robots. Subsequently, this code is constantly updated and improved so robots have improving rights in our society. Personal assistants for life Predicted by: Alexey Malanov Personal assistants (PAs) have rapidly developed throughout the 21st century. To begin with, they could only answer primitive questions: in 2019, voice assistants were as dumb as a box of rocks. But by 2025, they'd mastered the art of recognizing and transcribing speech (with punctuation marks too); they could understand the meaning of a text and recite it so realistically that it was almost indistinguishable from a human. This led to half of all office activities being automated: PAs began to take minutes, write post-meeting reports, summarize lengthy documents, and consciously digest and recapitulate the contents of messages. They also plan your day, schedule meetings and even order lunch. Thanks to machine learning, PAs are fully adapted to their owners' personalities, increasingly penetrating every aspect of their lives. It all began with assisting with office work, and by the mid-2040s, PAs had become an integral part of everyday life by monitoring their owners' diets, planning trips abroad, buying gifts for friends and family, and more. But it's not as rosy as it seems: the human-PA relationship has spawned a plethora of psychological issues and communication difficulties between real people. However, a specially trained AI psychologist is on hand to help us cope. Paradoxically, it's just another voice assistant. The power is in your hands Predicted by: Mersey Shelley is a pseudonym of Alexey Andreyev, writer and futurologist, who works for Kaspersky. This prediction is from his cyberpunk novel '2048' published in 2004. In decades past, palms and fingers were scanned for identification. Now, hands with implanted sensors become the scanners themselves. These implants come in different models with two main variations: first, a simple scanner for daily use. It helps to read different tags and product codes, and to exchange digital business cards via the handshake ritual (you can use face recognition to identify a stranger but this is considered indecent; besides, many people use protection to prevent recognition. Hats with special veils are popular). Second, sophisticated scanners for technicians and other professionals. For example, a doctor's hand includes various medical sensors for diagnostics – even a portable endoscope with a direct video stream to the doctor's visual cortex. A flexible workforce Predicted by: Jacob Morgan is a best-selling author, speaker, futurist and founder of FutureOfWorkUniversity.com. In the year 2050, technology will dominate the workplace with artificial intelligence and smart assistants being commonplace, while the use of augmented and virtual reality continues to increase. Everything will be 'smart' – connected and data-driven. The vast majority of us will continue working the same way we are today, but the jobs on offer will be ones that haven't yet been invented. Emotional intelligence and 'human' skills such as perpetual learning will be crucial for leaders to possess, as well as fluency with the latest technologies. Work will increasingly become more fluid as some employees will be virtual, some will be full-time, some will be bots, and we will all be working non-fixed hours. As with any kind of change, there will be pros and cons. Those who work in routine jobs are likely to struggle to make sure they can stay relevant in the new world of work. The advantage is that this will give us more time to focus on the human aspects of work such as building relationships, being creative, deep thinking, and practicing skills like empathy and self-awareness. Technology will help us make organizations more personable. This also means that we need to get more comfortable with using technology such as bots and AI in our work, a cause of tension and fear for some. And what about working hours? It depends if you're a knowledge worker or working in industries like retail. Flexible work arrangements are already being implemented at organizations around the world. The advantages are far-ranging, from improving employee satisfaction, productivity and tenure, to being able to attract and retain top talent. The potential disadvantages here are making sure that employees can stay accountable for delivering high-quality work while feeling like they're a part of the team, dealing with isolation, and ensuring effective communication and collaboration. I think the pros outstrip the cons: when managed effectively, flexible work arrangements can be a huge benefit to the organization and its people. Focus on the user experience Predicted by: Edney Souza, digital culture and business and technology teacher, speaker and entrepreneur, Brazil. For sure, work will become more fun and those repetitive activities in our day-to-day life will be done by robots and artificial intelligence. Knowing programming logic will be as important as English and mathematics. User experience design (UX) will be more important than other technical components of a project to ensure its success with customers. Skills in solving problems and serving customers will continue to be competitive advantages for the work of the future.
kids, tomorrow unlocked

What should we do with kids who hack?

  • Data breaches
  • min read
    • Tomorrow Unlocked's latest video series in collaboration with Euronews, hacker:HUNTER The Kids, examines how and why children get into hacking – putting themselves at risk and doing much damage. Should these young hackers be treated like criminals? Or can they be rehabilitated and taught to use their hacking skills for good? Watch the episodes: 1.  Criminals in children's rooms? How kids become hackers One mom didn't know her son was hacking until he had a gun delivered to the family home. Episode 1 explores how organized crime groups target children and groom them into cybercrime. We also follow the journey of a young hacker's mother who now helps police address cybercrime by children. 2.  How kids with little code skill do big, damaging hacks Children don't need much code skill to perform damaging cyberattacks. In episode 2, hear original testimony from a child hacker – a 'script kiddie' or 'skiddie:' How and why he attacked his school, stealing and exposing private information. But despite increasing damage from their hacks, experts think script kiddies shouldn't be thrown in jail – instead, they could be nurtured to be future cyber leaders. 3.  It started with innocent pranks. Now he faces life in prison. A 14-year-old known as Omnipotent started one of the world's most popular hacking forums, RaidForums. It began with innocent pranks on users of streaming service Twitch, but soon led to life-threatening hoaxes and selling stolen data. Authorities long knew Omnipotent was Portuguese national Diogo Santos Coelho. Yet they didn't arrest him until he was old enough to be tried as an adult. His case raises hard questions – could police have stopped crime if they'd intervened earlier? 4.  How Dutch police put prevention first with young hackers Hacking's adrenaline rush can be addictive. If authorities intervene when they're young, can black-hat (illegal) hackers gain a moral compass and learn to use their skills for good? Netherlands' National Police Corps focus on preventing cybercrime. Their unique programs RE_B00tCMP (Reboot Camp) and HACK_Right aim to send young hackers in a positive direction. Hacker GhostExodus, imprisoned for 11 years because of his illegal hacking as a young person, shares how he got back on track. Subscribe to Tomorrow Unlocked on YouTube for more films about how tech is changing our world. Experts in hacker:HUNTER The Kids Waqas Ahmed, Cybersecurity Writer, HackRead Media. Ben Cooper KC, specialist extradition lawyer. Dr. Kelli Dunlap Clinical Psychologist and Game Designer. Christian Funk, Head of GReAT, Kaspersky Germany. Barbara Gemen, Parent and Cyber Special Volunteer with the Dutch National Police GhostExodus, former black hat hacker turned humanitarian activist. Floor Jansen, Team Lead, Cyber Offender Prevention Squad, Dutch Police. Mike Jones, Security Researcher. Marco Preuss, Director of GReAT, Kaspersky Europe. Alexander Urbelis, Cybersecurity Lawyer, Crowell and Moring. Jorik Van Maanen, student and RE_B00tCMP graduate. Erik Van Oosbree, white-hat hacker and penetration tester.
insight story extended reality

How virtual and extended reality are transforming business

  • Tech for business 
  • min read
    • Between virtual reality (VR,) augmented reality (AR) and assisted reality – or their catch-all names mixed reality and extended reality (XR) – you might feel like you're losing your grip on all of them. But many businesses are reaching out to these emerging technologies to help solve tough problems like getting the team together remotely and hands-on training. On Kaspersky's new podcast, Insight Story, Episode 6, I look at extended reality with Dr. Paul Tennent (UK,) Associate Professor, Mixed Reality Lab, University of Nottingham and David Kim (South Korea,) Business Development Manager for Soma virtual office by Zigbang. Insight Story unpacks emerging tech trends with global specialists and businesses successfully applying the technology. VR, AR, XR – what are the different realities? These technologies all fall somewhere on the virtuality-reality continuum, according to Paul. "We've got these two ends – virtuality and reality. All the way along this spectrum are these technologies. They're generally about replacing our senses with something else – for example, our vision with a screen close to our eyes, hearing with headphones or touch with haptics. Augmented reality (AR) involves putting digital things in the real world. Assisted reality involves telepresence. Mixed and extended reality (XR) are catch-alls for everything from virtual reality to assisted reality to telepresence." Business has applied these technologies for over a decade. The IKEA app uses AR to let you superimpose their furniture on your room. Chat video filters that make your face look like a cute dog are also AR. While we're familiar with these kinds of consumer uses, businesses are increasingly using XR in their work with other businesses (B2B.) Paul has seen engineering companies make good use of assisted reality. "You can support on-site engineers with assisted reality, having somebody sitting behind them, watching what they're doing." "If you were installing a heat pump, it's useful to see a geothermal survey of the area before you drill a big hole. AR can add that layer of data onto real life," says Paul. An engineer could see the extra data layer by pointing a smartphone or tablet at what they're working on. One award-winning use of haptics – technology that transmits tactile information like vibration, feel and force – in training vets often provokes laughs but helps solve a serious problem. "A virtual, haptic simulation of a cow's back end helps vets-in-training feel different contexts, like something cancerous or moving a calf. With virtual glasses, it looks like a real cow. We see similar uses in medicine, with point-based haptic systems imitating a scalpel cutting through skin." Virtually solving the remote collaboration problem Few businesses need to teach how to deliver a calf, but almost all are looking for ways to better facilitate collaboration in remote and hybrid work. Proptech startup Zigbang started creating virtual office Soma during the pandemic. David says, "When our company went remote, we did what everyone did – endless Zoom calls where you fall into Zoom fatigue. A missing core element was togetherness – small conversations that turn into bigger ideas. We wondered if there's a way to better go about this remote thing." Zigbang's existing work creating 3D models of apartments sparked an idea. "We thought, why don't we create an office we could go into together? We started testing it with developers and thought it was good enough to bring in the whole company." In Soma, avatars represent colleagues, with their device's camera feed over the avatar's head. Like in real life, if you're far from someone, you can't see or hear them. As you walk closer, you start to see them and, when really close, hear their audio and see them clearly. David says, "We wanted to create that instantaneous communication – being able to walk up to someone and ask, did you get that email?" If, like me, you enjoy the solitude of remote working, and find the idea of your boss's avatar stealthily approaching and interrupting you unappealing, there's a middle way. Soma lets staff ensure they're left alone to do deep work. "We designed spaces for people to get away from others and get work done – bookable conference rooms and 'pods' – by walking into a pod, you're saying, I don't want to be disturbed." David also has ideas to address some of the challenges for office-less businesses. "Employees who don't have enough space or privacy to work at home may prefer to be in the office where everything's set up, and companies pay for air conditioning, electricity and internet. There are different ways to handle that – one is a stipend to help staff set up a home office. We've also set up lounges across the city where employees can go to work." The shared office space market is booming – expected to be worth 123 billion US dollars by 2028. Reducing cybersecurity risk with realities Kaspersky's Fabio Assolini sees several privacy and cybersecurity risks for businesses using extended reality tech. "During the pandemic, we saw the rise of so-called Zoombombing – when someone accesses a conference call without permission and shows obscene or violent material. It can affect VR devices too." How Zoombombing happens isn't high-tech. Fabio says, "People openly share passwords. Employees must be trained not to." Meanwhile, VR headsets are in a league of their own for privacy concerns. Meta's Quest Pro headset has four front-facing cameras, three on each controller and several to track eyes and facial expressions. These devices could give deep insight into users' activity, read emotional reactions to ads and make inferences from your home interior — from what colors you like to how many pets and children you have. But none of this should deter businesses from exploring what immersive tech can do as a training aid. "The tech is already in use to help people learn about security problems or cyberattacks," says Fabio. Kaspersky Interactive Protection Simulation sees teams, including technical staff and leaders, protecting a virtual business from cyberattacks. Players use a limited budget and a moderator's input to build an optimal protection strategy. It helps managers and directors understand cybersecurity budgets better. Realities' future Asked where extended reality might go next, Paul predicts "a shift slightly away from VR towards AR. We're headed for a fluid reality, which is part physical and part digital." David urges businesses to get on board with these technologies. "Things are changing now in the realm of work. Companies more willing to look into and implement changes early will be the ones that succeed down the line." Listen to the full Insight Story audio series on Podbean or your usual podcast provider.
insight story ai machine learning

Customer wins from AI require strategy, not just investment

  • Data and privacy
  • min read
    • There was a time when artificial intelligence (AI) had a menacing ring, but things have moved on. Chat GPT and generative AI apps are creating new roles or making some skills and careers obsolete, depending on who you listen to. Meanwhile, we see its benefits every day, like finding efficiencies and automating repetitive tasks. AI could soon be essential to most businesses. But it's not always clear how to use it. Kaspersky's new podcast, Insight Story unpacks emerging tech trends with global specialists and businesses successfully using the tech. In Episode 5, I speak with AI expert Dr. Romesh Ranawana (Sri Lanka,) customer loyalty consultancy Truth CEO Amanda Cromhout (South Africa) and Fabio Assolini, Head of Research in Latin America for Kaspersky's Global Research and Analysis Team. We examine how business should approach AI and machine learning to make the most of the opportunity while staying secure. Understanding what's meant by AI Romesh says we normally mean something more specific when we talk about AI. "All technology – be it Alexa, your car or washing machine – uses algorithms. An algorithm outputs something when you input something. For problems too big or hard to solve with software, a particular type of AI – machine learning – offers a new way to build algorithms, instead of a programmer writing lines of code." And this kind of AI is everywhere. "We hear much about how it's changing e-commerce and video streaming, but nearly every industry uses AI – from healthcare to retail to factories. Many of the biggest brands, like Amazon and AirBnB, owe their success to it." AI in customer loyalty Customer loyalty programs have long used AI to target customers with more relevant, personalized offers. Amanda's company Truth specializes in these. "Data is fundamental to customer loyalty programs. Everything we know about a consumer – whether the information they give or gained through transactions – has proven power." UK grocery outlet Tesco's Clubcard was one of the first schemes of its kind, with some 20 million members today. Amanda says their approach to data was groundbreaking: "Every quarter, Tesco sent out thank you vouchers with a small discount on your next shop. The vouchers were relevant to what you bought, and no set was the same." "It's a value exchange," says Amanda. Customers give their data because of what they get out of it. "Sometimes companies ask members or customers for data less overtly. Financial institutions may offer a reward to answer a questionnaire, creating a profile of your financial needs and propensity to borrow. They're paying so they can get a higher response rate to sales. If done well, it's win-win." Recent research, Global Data Privacy: What the Consumer Really Thinks 2022, found discounts and freebies were in the top three reasons consumers share data with brands. Amanda also thinks some companies confuse using data well with hard-sell. "They're not thinking through the value proposition. The younger generation especially knows their data's worth. They're asking, 'What am I going to get for that?'" Keys to success with AI Most companies investing in AI aren't getting immediate results. MIT research found only three in 10 companies investing in AI are getting a return on their investment. Who succeeds depends on how they approach it, Romesh says. He thinks why you're doing it matters too – it should be about changing how the company does business, not simply making savings. "If you look at AI as a way to automate what you do now, you'll get reduced costs but not much benefit. You need to mesh AI and people in your organization to generate value, so they're learning from each other." Amanda adds, "Many companies want to flick a switch and, in two hours, make it happen. They don't understand it has to be a strategic driver for the business." Romesh and Amanda both highlight good-quality training data as a critical success factor. Romesh says, "Customers and their behaviors change – what you train today may not be relevant in a week's time. AI systems must be continuously trained on real-time, up-to-date data. Companies need data collected continuously kept in a single space – we call it 'the data lake.'" Amanda also believes the C-suite must support an AI strategy, even lead it. "It doesn't start with marketing executives wanting to do this – it starts at the top, with the CEO and the board." But they shouldn't expect too much, too soon. "The leaders of any company must understand it's an ultramarathon, not a sprint." Romesh notes it's becoming possible for more people to work with AI. "AI systems are still complicated. It takes knowledge, data engineering and software skill. Over the last few years, more tools have come out – low-code or no-code tools – making AI more accessible to more people." How AI is changing cybercrime AI didn't need to be more accessible for cybercriminals to use it, which has implications for business. In research with Kaspersky's Global Research and Analysis Team, Fabio Assolini has seen several applications of AI in cybercrime. "AI is helping cybercriminals bypass new authentication methods. Some financial institutions and banking apps use biometric authentication, where the user must look to the right, to the left and smile. We've seen cybercriminals using AI tools to do this with only a victim's photo." How businesses should respond isn't straightforward – they need to identify more fraudsters while not misidentifying too many customers. "You can fine-tune authentication methods to better identify fraud attempts, but you may get many false positives. It's a balance," says Fabio. Fabio recommends businesses ensure AI training data is ethically gathered and complies with privacy regulation in countries they distribute to. "Some free apps for adding special effects to pictures collect and sell data sets for training AI. There's a privacy issue, especially in Europe with GDPR, but sometimes those collecting the data are in parts of the world without privacy restrictions." To comply with GDPR, AI systems that use personal data must be developed, trained and deployed with a clear objective determined at the design stage. It must be legitimate and compatible with the organization's goals. AI's future in business Amanda stresses the need for brands to understand what their data really means about every human behind it. "Data scientist Dr. Shorful Islam says, at the end of every data point is a human being we're trying to persuade to do something differently, or trying to make their engagement with a brand more pleasurable, or whatever the desired outcome. So you've got to think about behavior more like human beings, rather than robots." Romesh sees AI leading to powerful change in consumer behavior. "We're buying things we'd never have bought before because companies are pushing them to us. Amazon reports 35 percent of its revenue comes from recommendations." And those features will only get cleverer. "Systems will become more powerful because they'll have more data feeding in." Listen to the full Insight Story audio series on Podbean or your usual podcast provider.
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About Secure Futures

Secure Futures magazine is your go-to business guide for opinions, trends and insight into the world of technology and cybersecurity. We help your business to bring on the future. Brought to you by Kaspersky, the global cybersecurity experts.

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