Potential Risks and Threats of Google Bard

Potential Risks and Threats of Google Bard

As enterprise increasingly realizes that artificial intelligence (AI can transform industries and can revolutionize business operations and human lives, it is also becoming aware that through AI, privacy concerns are becoming serious.

While AI threatens users’ security, privacy, and data access, Google’s AI revelation, known as ‘Bard,’ released on March 21, 2023, sparked widespread debate amongst the masses. Google started allowing access to Bard to limited users based on a joining waitlist. Industry veterans are increasingly concerned about their data’s ethical implications, privacy, and security risks.

Mike-Britton“Google’s chatbot, Bard, has been reportedly writing phishing emails from day 1 of its launch. While these chatbots are undoubtedly creative and powerful tools for learning, there is also the risk that they could be weaponized for nefarious purposes,” Says Mike Britton, CISO at Abnormal Security.

In this blog, Let’s examine the potential risks and benefits of Google’s Bard.

The Bard Revelation

Bard, an AI language algorithm developed by Google, has gained traction for its robust natural language processing (NLP) capabilities. The tool has wide applications for various applications, right from chatbots to content creation and more. Industry experts are concerned over the privacy and ethical use of the data on the users’ Gmail accounts.

Also Read: Protecting Businesses with a Strong Enterprise Security Architecture

How Safe is Google Bard?

There is tremendous noise about the launch of Google Bard in the Market. Bard is a rival to Open AIs Chat GPT and the Bing chatbot. This Google chatbot will respond to questions and follow user commands, mimicking human speech to answer all user queries. Even when humans are submerged in AI applications everywhere, it is a relatively new technology that needs more exploration. As Google is one of the most relied search engines globally, users expect the company to consider safety one of their top priorities. As Google’s chatbot is in its infancy, it will be challenging to say whether it is safe to use Bard or not.

“As cybercriminals use tools like these to level up their attacks, organizations will need to be prepared to step up their defenses. Defenses that rely on static, known indicators of compromise won’t be enough, as novel variations in social engineering lures will be able to evade them,” Adds Mike.

CISOs need to be aware of the potential threats and risks to which Google’s Chatbot Bard could expose businesses. Following are a few potential risks that businesses need to be aware of:

 Potential Risks and Threats of Google Bard

  • Business Email Compromise

According to the “2022 INTERNET CRIME REPORT,” published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Business email compromise (BEC) is already a massive concern facing organizations – costing them up to USD 2.7 billion last year alone – and continuing to grow. They’re a lucrative attack tactic for cybercriminals, and AI chatbots could help them become even more sophisticated by allowing them to automatically craft unique content that makes detection based on malicious string matches more difficult.

  • Privacy Concerns

Invasion of privacy is one of the most significant concerns with Google’s Bard because most users leverage Gmail for personal and professional use. There is an ongoing debate that the search engine might use users’ private conversations and personal information to train the AI. Hence, it is crucial to consider how much access to personal data needs to be offered to these companies.

  • Misuse of Data

Most people rely on Google as their preferred search engine and Gmail for emails and other professional collaborations. Data misuse can be a significant security concern that organizations might have to overcome. The company claims policies are in place to secure the user’s privacy and prevent data leaks.

  • Biased AI

The biased opinion is another potential risk of leveraging any AI-based tools. The accuracy of the AI tools will heavily depend on the accuracy of data fed to the systems.

  • Ethical Concerns

Ethical AI is one of the most debatable topics that limits its development. There are huge amounts of investments pumped into the development of robust AI tools, but who is analyzing whether the logic behind AI is ethical or not? As discussed above, cybercriminals can leverage Google’s chatbot to write customized business email compromise emails that are difficult to detect. As a result, businesses with robust cybersecurity defense strategies cannot see a cyberattack quickly.

Also Read: CISA Announces ‘Untitled Goose Tool’ to Detect for Microsoft Azure Cloud Infections

User Privacy and AI

The development of artificial intelligence tools and user privacy is not a new debate. As many tech companies invest tremendously in developing robust AI tools to enhance their services, monitoring the ethics and transparency offered is crucial. Businesses need to be transparent about how they use user data and should have strategic plans implemented to safeguard the user’s right to privacy. Moreover, companies behind AI development need to offer users the choice of whether they want to share their data for cognitive learning.

How can Businesses Safeguard from Potential Risks and Threats of Google Bard?

A more effective approach may include leveraging security tools that use AI as their key defense. By employing behavioral and relationship analysis across the email environment, organizations can begin to understand normal behavior and detect when an incoming email deviates from that norm – whether it’s a suspicious financial request or an impersonated sender – to detect and block these new types of attacks.

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