This changes everything: Ransomware in the age of AI

I still write blog posts the old-fashioned way: With my fingers and a keyboard — no chatbot. But I am starting to feel like that makes me a cranky old dude who refuses to embrace change — or as some call it, progress.

After all, I have to admit that these new-fangled artificial intelligence programs are pretty sophisticated. They do a good job of writing, and plenty of writers are totally justified in using them to help generate rough drafts.

AI is undeniably transforming not just the business of writing but a whole wide range of human endeavor — including, unfortunately, cybercrime. And whereas I may object on principle to enhancing my writing with AI’s help, I guarantee you that criminals and threat actors have no such qualms about leveling up their ransomware attacks with artificial intelligence capabilities.

Find out what’s coming

There’s a new webinar coming up where you can find out what experts are thinking about how AI will soon change ransomware.

Barracuda CTO Fleming Shi and Principal Product Marketing Manager Anastasia Hurley will be joined by special guest Kaushal Misra, CTO for Strategic Clients at Microsoft. Together they’ll talk through some of the important changes that they and others predict as ransomware begins to leverage advanced, AI-powered capabilities.

It’s not The Terminator

Now, it’s important to keep things in perspective. The point is not to get scared — it’s to get prepared.

Still, the idea of AI-boosted ransomware can sound pretty scary. In fact, some of the terms being tossed around remind me a bit of how Sarah Connor described the original Terminator.

• “Relentless.” Once these attacks decide to target you, they could hammer away at your defenses for as long as it takes to penetrate your network.
• “Hyper-adaptable.” Imagine a ransomware attack that is able to rewrite itself in real time, adjusting its own code to find ways to bypass your security.
• “Extremely optimized attack modes.” From uncovering vulnerabilities with uncanny precision to conducting ransom negotiations with ruthless efficiency, AI-powered attacks could soon make existing defenses obsolete.

Fighting fire with fire

The news is not all bad, though. Like any technology, AI can be used for both good and ill. Indeed, Barracuda, along with other security vendors, has been using AI to create powerful defenses against phishing, ransomware, and other threats for years. And that work is continuing.

So, just as criminals will be leveraging AI to make more powerful threats, we will be accelerating our development efforts to bring ever more advanced AI capabilities into our security solutions.

And when these new threats do appear on the horizon, we — and our customers — will be prepared to fight back.

Don’t miss this opportunity to get a look into the future of ransomware. Reserve your spot at the webinar right now.