Microsoft recently revealed that U.S. adversaries, particularly Iran and North Korea, along with Russia and China to a lesser extent, are utilizing generative artificial intelligence (AI) in offensive cyber operations. In collaboration with OpenAI, Microsoft detected and disrupted threats that attempted to exploit AI technology. While these techniques are still in their early stages and not particularly groundbreaking, the company emphasized the importance of exposing them publicly, as rival nations leverage large-language models to breach networks and carry out influence operations.
Traditionally, cybersecurity firms have employed machine learning for defense purposes, primarily to identify anomalous behavior in networks. However, criminals and offensive hackers are also harnessing the power of AI, and the introduction of large-language models, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, has raised the stakes in this cat-and-mouse game.
