Episode 134: How GenAI Lowers Bar for Cyber Threat Actors

In episode 134 of Cybersecurity Where You Are, Sean Atkinson is joined by Randy Rose, VP of Security Operations & Intelligence at the Center for Internet Security® (CIS®); and Timothy Davis, Lead Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) Analyst at CIS. Together, they discuss how generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) lowers the barrier of entry for cyber threat actors (CTAs). Here are some highlights from our episode:

• 01:37. CTAs' use of GenAI to improve their existing campaigns
• 03:38. The need for CTI teams to look beyond language in analyzing GenAI-enabled threats
• 07:22. The evolving impact of GenAI on phishing campaigns, malware development, deepfakes, and malicious Artificial Intelligence as a Service (AIaaS) offerings
• 12:28. How GenAI increases the the speed at which CTAs can scale their efforts
• 17:29. Technical barriers and other limitations that shape CTAs' use of GenAI
• 22:46. A historical perspective of AI-enabled cybersecurity and how GenAI can support cybersecurity awareness training
• 26:50. The cybersecurity benefits of AI and machine learning (ML) capabilities for clustering data
• 29:05. What the future might hold for GenAI from an offensive and defensive perspective

Resources

• The Evolving Role of Generative Artificial Intelligence in the Cyber Threat Landscape
• Episode 89: How Threat Actors Are Using GenAI as an Enabler
• Episode 95: AI Augmentation and Its Impact on Cyber Defense
• 12 CIS Experts' Cybersecurity Predictions for 2025
• CIS Critical Security Controls®
• Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center®

If you have some feedback or an idea for an upcoming episode of Cybersecurity Where You Are, let us know by emailing podcast@cisecurity.org.