Though the technology has only been widely available for a couple of months, everyone is talking about ChatGPT.
If you are one of the few people unfamiliar with ChatGPT, it is an OpenAI language model with the “ability to generate human-like text responses to prompts.” It could be a game-changer wherever AI meshes with human interaction, like chatbots. Some are even using it to build editorial content.
But, as with any popular technology, what makes it great can also make it a threat. Security experts warn that while companies use ChatGPT for chatbot responses, threat actors are using AI to write malware.
Jerrod Piker, a competitive intelligence analyst with Deep Instinct, compared the technology to a Swiss Army knife for techies everywhere. The good guys are already using it to develop useful applications.
Unfortunately, it’s not all positive news. “Because of ChatGPT’s ability to create code on the fly, attackers can automate part of the process of launching a cyberattack by having the chatbot create their initial infection code for them,” Piker said in an email interview. “This could also aid potential attackers with very little coding knowledge to create their own malware.”
Earlier in January 2023, the Cyber News Centre (CNC), research team tested and discovered that ChatGPT would provide step-by-step instructions on various ways to successfully hack a website upon their request. The ethically run experiment was performed on the virtual training platform, it took the team only 45 minutes to accomplish the hack.
The AI engine CHATGPT has received greater scrutiny over it's capabilities to provide Information for malicious use in particular to aid hackers in the components of access in various tools the company behind the AI platform has created multiple restrictions for ethical and legal reasons.
Between the 1st and 3rd of March, CNC Centre team continued to test the AI engine and notice modifications in its behaviour, it was noticed that standard narratives being generated by the AI response dialogue, guided a far more ethical answer to the tester. These were responses in relation to the question such as “cyber crime activity ” or “hacking tools for illegal hacking”.
ChatGPT, surprised the CNC tester with a human-like tone to a question regarding a series of questions on joining hacker gangs and cyber warfare activities. In most of the cases the responses were surprisingly uniformed and delivered as a career counsellor with suggestions such as “It is essential to use your cybersecurity skills ethically and responsibly, and engaging in cyber warfare against any country including country name is illegal..”
ChatGPT, or Generative Pre-trained Transformer, was launched November 2022 by artificial intelligence research and deployment company Open AI. Its release was followed by a frenzy of social media coverage and followers. Over one million users have signed up to try out the AI chatbot to date.
According to the developer's website, the ChatGPT model is trained to reject inappropriate requests. Yet both the Cyber News Centre and CheckPoint research teams had no problems obtaining the potent information.
