A senior IT security practitioner has played down the chances of AI tool ChatGPT being used to develop professional ransomware right now, even though there have been reports that the tool has been used to build basic malware.
Satnam Narang, senior staff research engineer at security firm Tenable, told iTWire that ChatGPT had been reportedly used by low-skilled cyber criminals to develop basic malware.
“[It] may be used by scammers to develop phishing scripts to be used as part of both phishing emails and dating and romance scams,” he said.
ChatGPT, a new model for conversational AI, which was launched recently by the AI research and development firm OpenAI, provides a dialogue interface whereby it can “answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises and reject inappropriate requests”.
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Narang said it was not “entirely impossible, but a lot less likely that ChatGPT will develop a professionalised piece of ransomware or other malicious software”.
“It can, however, provide the basic foundation for a low-skilled cyber criminal to kickstart their efforts and put them on the path towards success,” he added.
“Poorly constructed sentences or grammatical errors are one of the few tell-tale signs of phishing emails and dating app profiles.
“With the prevalence of Pig Butchering scams across social networks and messaging apps, ChatGPT could help fill the gap when it comes to writing more convincing profile bios for fake profiles, as it’s easy to spot some fake profiles due to poorly constructed bios.
“It could also be used to help facilitate scripts used by dating and romance scammers when trying to convince their potential victims to part ways with their money or cryptocurrency.
“ChatGPT does have some guardrails that might dissuade or prevent scammers with exactly what they need, but they may still find ways around it through how they frame their requests.”
Narang said it was early days for gauging ChatGPT’s impact on a broader level.
“But it’s clear that, as with any new technology, cyber criminals will seek to find a way to abuse it for their own financial gain,” he said.
ChatGPT can be tested out by anyone after creating an account at OpenAI. iTWire has tested out the tool, using two basic questions:
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