{"id":220026,"date":"2025-10-17T15:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T15:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/220026\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T15:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T15:03:09","slug":"artificial-intelligence-a-sword-and-shield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/220026\/","title":{"rendered":"Artificial intelligence a \u2018sword and shield’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Artificial intelligence has led to a new era of cyber security risks, a new report from the Canadian Internet Registration Authority<\/a> (CIRA) released Thursday has found. <\/p>\n

\u201cCybersecurity professionals are taking AI-driven threats seriously and are actively adapting their defences,\u201d the report said. The report warns that 43 per cent of Canadian organizations faced a cyber attack over the past year. <\/p>\n

AI, the new tool in hackers\u2019 arsenal is \u201cmore scalable, personalized, adaptive, and convincing,\u201d the CIRA says. Improved fraud techniques, fake images and videos, fake computer-generated voices, and data gathered by AI are key threats that cybersecurity professionals are worried about, the report found. <\/p>\n

\"\"People walk past an illuminated sign at the All In artificial intelligence conference on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023, in Montreal.THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Ryan Remiorz People walk past an illuminated sign at the All In artificial intelligence conference on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023, in Montreal.THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Ryan Remiorz Writing malicious code and creating deepfakes<\/p>\n

These systems can be used to exploit technical vulnerabilities and used in fraud schemes, one cyber security expert told CTV News. <\/p>\n

AI can be used in traditional hacking techniques, finding weak points in a program that can be broken into. Or it can be used to target the user of a program, through fraudulent emails or phone calls designed to extract sensitive data, like passwords. <\/p>\n

Ritesh Kotak, who has worked in cyber security for law enforcement and private companies, said that there is an increase in the way that AI is being used, \u201cwriting malicious code\u2026 exploiting vulnerabilities.” <\/p>\n

AI can help hackers find weak points and write code to break programs faster than they could before its invention, Kotak told CTVNews.ca on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Hackers and developers are always in an arms race Kotak said, and AI can work for either side. He called it the \u201csword and shield analogy,\u201d where AI can be used to assist in offensive malicious hacks, as a \u201csword,\u201d or be used as a tool for defence like a \u201cshield.\u201d <\/p>\n

READ MORE: Fraudsters use deepfake technology to turn CTV Ottawa story into scam video<\/a><\/p>\n

Financial institutions could use AI to detect anomalies faster than humans could, he said. That AI could then be used to freeze funds or notify account holders.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou patch one thing, and then two issues come up, that\u2019s always going to be the case where the bad people are going to be one step ahead,\u201d but Kotak said, but that\u2019s \u201call the more reason\u201d to leverage the possible advantages of AI for cyber security. <\/p>\n

\"\"Cybersecurity expert Ritesh Kotak Cybersecurity expert Ritesh Kotak is urging consumers to ‘think before you click’ to avoid becoming a victim of an e-transfer phishing scam. AI opening the door to more ransomware attacks<\/p>\n

AI is helping to open up the hacking landscape, Kotak said. He explained that there are groups like LockBit<\/a>, who hacked Toronto\u2019s Hospital for Sick Children in December 2022. <\/p>\n

LockBit is a group of hackers who use \u201cransomware,\u201d a type of program that locks users out of their systems. The group usually only unlocks the systems after the victim pays the ransom to regain access to their files or systems. <\/p>\n

Groups like LockBit offer guides, support and products for new hackers, who Kotak said become \u201caffiliates\u201d of the group. <\/p>\n

According to him, the incident that occurred in 2022 with the children\u2019s hospital was due to LockBit\u2019s techniques being used in a ransomware attack on its systems.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Cyberattacks hit military, Parliament websites as India hacker group targets Canada<\/a><\/p>\n

Bitdefender<\/a>, an antivirus developer, \u201cobserved a rise in \u2018lone wolf\u2019 ransomware operators\u201d – individuals acting on their own to engage in ransomware hacks. <\/p>\n

Tools like AI can help these \u201clone wolf\u201d hackers punch above their weight by automating menial or tedious tasks, allowing the hacker to focus on bigger or multiple operations at once. <\/p>\n

AI can help new hackers use the tools and malware that others have developed, he said. Larger organizations like LockBit will also offer to help train new hackers, for a cut of their spoils. <\/p>\n

There is a condition for using the group\u2019s software and techniques – they collect a royalty from their affiliates, Kotak added.<\/p>\n

However, hacking a children\u2019s hospital was against LockBit\u2019s rules and the group issued an apology<\/a> in the aftermath.<\/p>\n

These groups have support, products, collect royalties, and even a public relations department, Kotak said.<\/p>\n

\"\"A man uses a computer keyboard in Toronto in a Sunday, Oct. 9, 2023 photo illustration. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Graeme Roy A man uses a computer keyboard in Toronto in a Sunday, Oct. 9, 2023 photo illustration. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Graeme Roy <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Artificial intelligence has led to a new era of cyber security risks, a new report from the Canadian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,64,61],"class_list":["post-220026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-tech","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}