New Delhi, Artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT has gained popularity since its launch last November with millions of users – including cyber criminals. According to cyber security brand Norton, they are using the tool to quickly create more realistic and believable messages in different languages.
“…Cyber criminals are using it (ChatGPT) to generate malicious threats through its impressive ability to generate human-like text adapted to different languages and audiences. Cyber criminals can now quickly and easily create email or social media phishing lures that are even more convincing, making it even more difficult to tell what is legitimate and what is a threat,” says Norton, which is part of Nasdaq-listed software firm Zen Digital.
In its quarterly Consumer Cybersecurity Pulse report released Tuesday, Norton said that in addition to writing the lure — the bait used to lure victims into phishing scams — ChatGPT can also generate code. Just as ChatGPT, developed by US research lab OpenAI, makes life easier for developers with its ability to write and translate source code, it could make life easier for cybercriminals by making scams faster to build and more difficult to detect. Is.
“I am excited about a large language model like ChatGPT, however, I am also wary of how cybercriminals can abuse it. We know that cybercriminals adopt the latest technology quickly, and we are seeing that ChatGPT can be used to quickly and easily generate credible threats,” Norton Senior Technical Director Kevin Roundy said in a statement on Tuesday.
In addition to using ChatGPT for more efficient phishing scams, Norton experts believe it can also be used to create deepfake chatbots. These can impersonate humans or legitimate sources, such as a bank or government entity, to gain access to sensitive information, steal money, or manipulate victims into turning over their personal information to commit fraud, Norton explained. .
To protect themselves, Norton advised Internet users to avoid chatbots that do not appear on a company’s website or app, and to share any personal information when chatting with someone online. Be careful doing It asked users to be cautious before clicking on links in response to unsolicited phone calls, emails or messages and to update security solutions.
According to the report, during 2022, Norton thwarted a total of more than 3.5 billion threats globally, or about 9.6 million threats per day. Of these, 90.9 million were phishing attempts, 260.4 million were file threats, and 1.6 million were mobile threats. In addition, Norton Antitrack blocks over 3 billion trackers and fingerprinting scripts.
Fingerprinting refers to a type of online tracking that is more invasive than typical cookie-based tracking.
In India, from October to December 2022, Norton blocked nearly 96,000 phishing attempts and 1.6 million file threats. In the last quarter alone, Norton blocked over 13 million threats in India, or approximately 143.4 thousand threats per day.
(Edited by Geetalakshmi Ramanathan)
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