AI-Generated Attacks: How to Stay Protected With Zero Trust

Attackers have always evolved quickly. But with the rise of AI, the speed of evolution has never been faster.  

Today’s threats are not only becoming more sophisticated – they’re also becoming more accessible, allowing even novice cybercriminals to carry out highly effective attacks.

As these threats grow, using a Zero Trust security framework with Zero Trust Segmentation at its core is critical. It’s key to defending your organization against AI-generated threats.

AI cyberattacks are real and on the rise

AI threats aren’t just a talking point for cyber experts – they’re real:

• A finance worker at a multinational Hong Kong bank transferred $25 million after attackers used a Zoom deepfake scam to pose as the company’s chief financial officer.  

• Microsoft reported that they have stopped several AI-generated attacks by U.S. adversaries, including Iran, North Korea, Russia, and China.

• Attackers are using CVE security advisories to take advantage of security gaps before they can be patched.

Cyberattacks are already on the rise, and AI will only drive that increase even more. In fact, the National Cyber Security Centre predicts a continued rise in global ransomware in the coming years. This signals a new wave of threats which demand strong, flexible defenses.  

AI security tools should build cyber resilience

For years, reactive security solutions have used AI and ML to find and stop threats. These systems look at patterns and predict behaviors using large sets of past cybersecurity data. But attackers are now using the same AI and ML tech to improve their own attacks. This raises doubts about how effective AI-driven security solutions can be.

This presents a major challenge for cybersecurity professionals: Can traditional security tools, which often rely on AI and ML, really keep up with attackers who are using the same advanced technology? This question makes us consider whether adding more AI to our defenses is enough – or if we need more layers in our defenses to outsmart AI-powered threats.

Zero Trust: How to protect against AI cyberattacks

In the face of AI, it’s no longer possible to prevent all breaches. Organizations must focus on building cyber resilience so they can reduce the damage caused by breaches and maintain operations during an attack.  

1. Build Zero Trust

The best way to achieve cyber resilience is through a Zero Trust strategy.

A Zero Trust strategy fights AI by limiting what attackers can learn and reducing the attacker's pathways through the network. By removing unneeded connectivity, you can remove trust from the network. With Zero Trust, the overall impact of an attack can be mitigated.

Adopting a Zero Trust framework is the best way to secure endpoints and servers. A Zero Trust strategy fights AI by limiting what attackers can learn and reducing malware’s pathways through the network. By reducing unneeded connections and isolating breaches, Zero Trust reduces the overall impact of an attack.

Zero Trust shifts organizations from a security model focused on detection and response to one centered on containing breaches. This means Zero Trust requires a complete change to an organization’s security posture. It must be integrated across all parts of the IT infrastructure, from endpoints to servers to cloud services, to ensure strong defense against AI cyber threats.

2. Contain AI threats with Zero Trust Segmentation

Zero Trust Segmentation (ZTS) is a foundational part of any Zero Trust strategy. You can’t build Zero Trust without it. ZTS ensures a consistent approach to microsegmention across the entire hybrid, multi-cloud attack surface. It allows organizations to see and reduce risk across cloud, endpoint, and data center environments.

Simplify Zero Trust with Illumio’s new AI features

The power of AI isn’t only for attackers. AI capabilities can be an important tool to help your organization secure against AI-generated threats.

Containing breaches is more important than ever. Illumio has integrated AI tools as part of the ZTS platform to help security teams:

• Significantly reduce the time and workload dedicated to segmentation projects

• Overcome skills gaps

• Simplify cyber resilience

• Proactively protect critical assets

• More easily meet compliance requirements

• Speed up Zero Trust adoption

Illumio Virtual Advisor (IVA)

This AI chatbot will provide instant answers and actions to help with your ZTS project. Now everyone can help with tasks that were once time-intensive and complex by simply asking a question to the chatbot. This will help streamline workflows and reduce effort when implementing segmentation.  

Illumio AI auto-labelling and policy recommendations

Illumio’s rules-based engine and AI capabilities now help teams easily label workloads and roll out security policies faster. Cloud workloads will now belabeled automatically by analyzing network traffic, flow logs, and workload metadata.

Through machine learning (ML), Illumio can recommend security policies for critical workloads like databases on day one. This helps set up initial security measures within the first 24 hours of deployment.  

With Illumio, Zero Trust is more achievable for every organization, no matter its size, location, or industry. Illumio’s Zero Trust AI tools are helping organizations easily see security gaps and contain attacks across cloud, data center, and endpoint environments.

Contact us today to learn more about how Illumio ZTS can help secure your organization against AI attacks.