washington – The use of artificial intelligence (AI) to target small and medium-sized businesses is increasing, according to a new annual report from the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC).
In terms of numbers:
This report examines the impact of identity theft and cyberattacks on small and medium-sized businesses. The ITRC surveyed a total of 662 small business owners or managers.
Among the findings: 81% of small businesses reported experiencing a security breach, data breach, or both in the past year. Additionally, over 40 percent of cyber events identify AI-powered attacks as the root cause.
Businesses aren't the only ones being hit.
Researchers said 38.3% of small business owners reported for the first time that they had “increased prices” to deal with the financial impact of the incident.
What they say:
ITRC Chairman James E. Lee said of the price increases: “This is inflation. It's a tax.” “We call it a cyber tax because all these costs are more than small businesses can afford, so they have to raise prices, and that just drives inflation.”
“This is an economic issue. It's a national security issue,” Lee said of the whole issue, adding that AI is being used in a variety of ways to target these companies. This includes bad actors using this technology to design fake websites, texts, and emails that look perfect. He said it is also being used to analyze stolen data.
“All of the information about us in these data breaches can now be analyzed in the same way that companies analyze marketing data,” Lee explained.
Let's dig deeper:
To read the full ITRC report, you can find it here.
