Does AI Present Cybersecurity Problems for Consumers?

There is no doubt that artificial intelligence presents both significant opportunities and challenges when it comes to cybersecurity. A good understanding of cyber threats is crucial for ensuring the security and privacy of modern homes.

We live in an increasingly interconnected world that combines smart devices and Internet of Things (IoT). These days, device connections in homes are everywhere. Consumers don’t necessarily think twice about cybersecurity when we connect another device to our home network. However, as we embrace advanced technologies, we also open ourselves to potential vulnerabilities that those with malicious intentions can exploit.

Typical vulnerabilities in home settings include weak network security and passwords, malware and ransomware attacks, and social engineering or phishing attempts. Through these vulnerabilities, outside entities can gain access to users’ networks, which can in turn provide a platform to access devices and personal data. These vulnerabilities can also expose the physical home security through access to door locks, garages, and disabling security systems, creating the potential for significant loss of assets and damage in your home.

One of the major concerns in the industry right now is that AI will be used to enhance cyber attacks. Some of the fears around this include AI’s ability to:

• Analyze behavior
• Impersonate people (including their images, mannerisms, actions, and speech) through the use of Deep Fakes
• Generate highly believable phishing attacks
• Create and utilize fraudulent accounts

However, AI is not all bad! There are also significant advantages to technological advancements that improve home security. Some of these benefits include:

• The ability to perform automated security checks, saving the user time and ensuring maintenance.
• Creating a model for normal and abnormal behavior to improve monitoring
• Actively detecting and preventing threats
• Making intelligent decisions with data like notifications, alerts, and more.

As AI capabilities continue to advance, it is crucial to develop countermeasures to prevent the misuse of AI while promoting responsible and ethical AI development and usage.

As the leader of a consumer security company, I ensure that our brand follows strict cybersecurity practices and standards throughout our product life cycles. It’s important to put trust in brands and products that are both GDPR and NDAA-compliant. Here are some tips to look at when selecting security devices that utilize AI for your home.

• External facing: The product should encrypt all user data, whether in motion or at rest (which is stored in a user’s geographical region), using robust key management services.
• Promptly Addressing Vulnerability: The company must monitor security vulnerabilities in products and release firmware updates and patches to address evolving or potential threats.
• Expert Collaboration: Collaborate with prominent cybersecurity experts and authorities to address emerging threats, apply best practices, and implement evolving cybersecurity standards.
• Cybersecurity Testing: Regularly engage multiple concurrent cybersecurity experts in testing security posture and attack surface to ensure, wherever possible, potential exposures are addressed.
• User Education: Provide educational resources, user guides, best practices, and exceptional customer support to help customers understand and implement effective cybersecurity measures. Assist customers in resolving security-related concerns and offer detailed guidance on securing systems.
• Zero Trust Security Architecture: The brand needs a system for managing access. For example, at Swann, we utilize a Zero Trust Enterprise where we have removed implicit trust in various components, developers, system admins, as well as cloud services and are functioning with only necessary and minimal required privileges.
• AI Profiling, Continuous Monitoring, and Prevention: At Swann, our internally developed AI-based Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDPS) are quickly able to highlight abnormal activity. These services are tuned to quarantine affected components and trigger the IDPS recovery mechanism.
• Disaster Recovery: The product should have a disaster recovery system. Swann has established Recovery Time Objectives and Recovery Point objectives. Our IDPS and deployment pipelines are geared to rebuild our infrastructure from scratch in alternate bunkers and restore services quickly.

In short, there will always be cybersecurity concerns as technology advances, but there are also improvements in our physical security that can be gained. Consumers should be aware of the factors that put them at risk and put their trust in brands and providers that take precautions and responsibility for their security.