Cybersecurity expert and co-founder of Lasso Security Elad Schulman sat down on Tuesday with ynet to discuss the growing risk of cyberattacks and the impacts of AI on those risks.
We've seen recent Iranian attempts to infiltrate Israeli organizations. How do you characterize these attempts?
"I think that in general, in today's world we see more and more cyberattacks being more aggressive, a bit more violent. And especially in the new world of generative AI where things can be automated, it could be automated agents, and you can think of the Gen AI as almost self-aware. We see a lot of escalations in this world and definitely we expect it to grow more and more."
And since October 7, the frequency of the attempts has changed.
"In times of conflict, we see increases of attacks on Israel from all over the world. It's not unique. It's happening on a daily basis, but definitely in times of conflict we see more and more, as you can expect, this is another area in the war field."
A conversation with Elad Shulman, CEO and co-founder of Lasso Security
(Video: Lior Sharon)
What are the common tools and techniques used for Iranian cyber threats actors?
"Some of them are groups of people that are like any other hackers in the world. Some of them are state sponsored attacks. It's not just from Iran. They're also state sponsored attacks from all over the world, and they're using both common techniques in 22 organizations, some critical infrastructures, hospitals and the likes, and some are a bit more advanced and are really state level attacks and are more toward our military or government or anything that can impact. We see things that are at the cutting edge of technology so again. We're advancing and they're advancing."
What are the main threats to organizations and critical infrastructure?
"First of all, the main threat that there is and always have been is the human factor. Usually, they're targeting the the weakest link in the chain and finding someone that does not suspect a specific an allegedly naive email or a message that they're getting and then they're infiltrating into a specific person's device or laptop and then, from there, they're moving into the organization and finding the way with the credentials of that person into very sensitive pieces of information. And sometimes it could be crashing of systems or causing them to to malfunction or do something that they're not supposed to do. Sometimes it starts from the very small areas within the organization but again finding its way into the crown jewels of the organization. Potentially creating catastrophic damage."
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So which proactive measures are used to counter these threats?
"First of all, organizations need to practice what we call 'good cyber hygiene', and protect themselves, have the relevant policies, have employees awareness, and education training, maintain patching for their system all the time and of course, as they're developing their own internal systems, you also need to develop your cybersecurity systems and be at the cutting edge of technology whether it is with the incumbents of the world, the more traditional cybersecurity vendors, the big ones, or to work with the cutting edge startups. General AI is one example that this is something that is new and the existing tools are not able to address it, so you very much need to be working with the companies at the front of this war."