Darktrace warns of rise in AI-enhanced scams since ChatGPT release ... about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ftechn...

theguardian.com

Darktrace warns of rise in AI-

enhanced scams since ChatGPT
release
Mark Sweney

3–4 minutes

The cybersecurity firm Darktrace has warned that since the

release of ChatGPT it has seen an increase in criminals using
artificial intelligence to create more sophisticated scams to con
employees and hack into businesses.

The Cambridge-based company, which reported a 92% drop in

operating profits in the half year to the end of December, said AI
was further enabling “hacktivist” cyber-attacks using
ransomware to extort money from businesses.

The company said it had seen the emergence of more

convincing and complex scams by hackers since the launch of
the hugely popular Microsoft-backed AI tool ChatGPT last
November.

“Darktrace has found that while the number of email attacks

across its own customer base remained steady since
ChatGPT’s release, those that rely on tricking victims into
clicking malicious links have declined while linguistic complexity,
including text volume, punctuation and sentence length among
others, have increased,” the company said.

“This indicates that cybercriminals may be redirecting their focus

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to crafting more sophisticated social engineering scams that

exploit user trust.”

However, Darktrace said that the phenomenon had not yet

resulted in a new wave of cybercriminals emerging, merely
changing the tactics of the existing cohort.

“ChatGPT has [not] yet lowered barriers to entry for threat

actors significantly, but it does believe that it may have helped
increase the sophistication of phishing emails, enabling
adversaries to create more targeted, personalised, and
ultimately, successful attacks,” the company said.

Darktrace also warned in its results that it had seen a

“noticeable” slowdown in businesses signing up for its security
products in the final three months of last year. It attributed the
drop in its operating profits in the last six months of 2022 to a
tax bill relating to the vesting of share awards for its chief
executive, Poppy Gustafsson, and finance boss, Cathy Graham,
which had forced it to reduce its forecast of free cashflow this
year.

The company, whose market capitalisation of £1.9bn is far from

the heady highs of almost £7bn months after flotation, said it
had increased its customer base by a quarter year-on-year from
6,573 to 8,178 in the six months to the end of December.

Darktrace, which has been subjected to a barrage of criticism

from short-sellers unconvinced that it can deliver on its aim of
becoming a potential European superpower in the US-
dominated cybersecurity space, said it was not concerned by
the recent slump in new business.

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“Although there has been a slowdown in new customer wins, I

am pleased that our investments in retaining customers and
increasing the value of both new and existing contracts are
paying off,” said Gustafsson, who pointed to 36% year-on-year
growth in revenues in the six months to the end of December.

“Our business continues to deliver against a challenging macro-

economic backdrop, with continued strong year-on-year revenue
growth.”

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