Artificial Intelligence Now Targeting Hackers

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The online security situation is getting more and more complex, as hackers break into installations that were previously thought of as secure, such as a big gaming and content network and even an SSL certificate issuer. But as computers become smarter, artificial intelligence may also be the solution to catching cybercriminals.

Computers —  or artificial intelligence — are already replacing human beings in several processes and professions that previously required creative thought. For instance, a program called Narrative Science can create stories, articles and news reports based on data, and the resulting output can be mistaken for one that is written by a human.

Such AI software have wider applications than just article-writing, though. Security company CSIdentity has made an application that tries to converse with malicious hackers, in an attempt to weed out information. The goal here is to solicit data in hacker-oriented forums — which usually includes credit card numbers, personal information, and sometimes even financial and bank information.

The programmers at CSIdentity have studied usage and language patterns from hacker chat rooms and forums, and have used these to formulate the language used by their software. The AI then interacts with other users in various forums, and tries to join in on the conversation. And when leads are found, the AI tries to engage, such as by making an offer to buy stolen data. CSIntelligence even says their bots are smart enough to respond with an expletive when someone questions their identity — it helps that many of these forums are frequented by non-native English speakers.

But while the bots are not yet fully usable in highly sensitive operations — such as penetrating crime rings run by professional syndicates that steal credit card information — they have been successful in making recoveries. In August, the AI was able to uncover 419,000 new records, which correspond to email usernames and passwords, and also 15,000 credit card numbers and 168 social security numbers.

CSIdentity says it doesn’t act on the data it retrieves, but just alerts concerned organizations (like the credit card companies), and sells the information to these companies. But this underscores the potential of AI in various applications. Sure, human creative thinking may be required in a lot of other fields, but in a potentially tedious job as scouring the web for information, bots may be more effective.