The Gately Report: Extreme Networks Using AI in 'Arms Race' with Cybercriminals

Extreme Networks is using artificial intelligence (AI) to better analyze and spot issues more quickly in the ongoing arms race with cybercriminals.

That’s according to Phil Swain, Extreme Networks’ CISO. The company provides cloud-driven networking solutions powered by machine learning (ML), AI, analytics and automation.

When it comes to AI and generative AI in cybersecurity, the risk is all about data loss, he said.

Extreme Networks’ Phil Swain

“It’s about potential malware being injected into the code,” Swain said. “It’s about unapproved software. So in one sense, these tools haven’t introduced new risks. It’s how they’re materializing is the new element to it, the democratization of the tools. Anybody can use ChatGPT. The reality is, AI is a powerful tool. And so the bad guys are using it, too. For example, you see it now in phishing. There’s a big trend in in phishing attacks to be less of the mass email. It seems that the days are numbered now for the mass email saying you have a package and you need to click here for the link where they’ve spelled wrong and it’s sort of very obvious. Now you get tailored emails where the spelling and the language in the email is correct. There are no grammatical errors now. AI is helping the bad guys craft better attacks.”

Extreme Networks Staying On Top of Threats

Extreme Networks‘ job is to be one step ahead of cybercriminals using AI, he said. And cybercriminals aren’t necessarily further ahead.

“It’s the same situation whether you go back 10 years and there’s an advancement here and the other side has an advancement back,” Swain said. “It’s a back and forth; everybody has different techniques. It’s not just about the tools; it’s about the processes. It’s about the understanding. It’s about the attack frameworks that provide you insight into sort of the methodology of attacks. So conceptually, that hasn’t changed with AI. It’s just the next set of tools that are being used. And I’m sure years from now we’ll be talking about something else.”

Voice is going to be the next frontier in AI and cyber crime, he said.

“We’ve heard the news recently that you can command ChatGPT with your voice, so it’s not going to be hard for the bad guys then to impersonate a voice,” Swain said. “We’re talking to you, but it won’t be you because someone is impersonating you. So you can see how this just moves along all the time with new techniques. Companies like Extreme have to look at that and understand how do we validate that you are who you say you are.”

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