AI aids nation-state hackers but also helps US spies to find them, says NSA cyber director

Nation state-backed hackers and criminals are using generative AI in their cyberattacks, but U.S. intelligence is also using artificial intelligence technologies to find malicious activity, according to a senior U.S. National Security Agency official.

“We already see criminal and nation state elements utilizing AI. They’re all subscribed to the big name companies that you would expect — all the generative AI models out there,” said NSA director of cybersecurity Rob Joyce, speaking at a conference at Fordham University in New York on Tuesday. “We’re seeing intelligence operators [and] criminals on those platforms,” said Joyce.

“On the flip side, though, AI, machine learning [and] deep learning is absolutely making us better at finding malicious activity,” he said.

Joyce, who oversees the NSA’s cybersecurity directorate tasked with preventing and eradicating threats targeting U.S. critical infrastructure and defense systems, did not speak to specific cyberattacks involving the use of AI or attribute particular activity to a state or government. But Joyce said that recent efforts by China-backed hackers to target U.S. critical infrastructure — thought to be in preparation for an anticipated Chinese invasion of Taiwan — was an example of how AI technologies are surfacing malicious activity, giving U.S. intelligence an upper hand.

“They’re in places like electric, transportation pipelines and courts, trying to hack in so that they can cause societal disruption and panic at the time in place of their choosing,” said Joyce.

Joyce said that China state-backed hackers are not using traditional malware that could be detected, but rather exploiting vulnerabilities and implementation flaws that allow the hackers to gain a foothold on a network and appear as though they are authorized to be there.

“Machine learning, AI and big data helps us surface those activities [and] brings them to the fore because those accounts don’t behave like the normal business operators on their critical infrastructure, so that gives us an advantage,” Joyce said.

Joyce’s comments come at a time where generative AI tools are capable of producing convincing computer-generated text and imagery and are increasingly used…