The move from fake news to mass opinion manipulation is part of a trend towards AI in our lives.
The next stage on from espionage, sabotage and highly sophisticated advanced persistent threats (APT) is ‘mass opinion manipulation’.
Speaking at a Kaspersky event in Athens, senior security researcher Dan Demeter called ‘mass opinion manipulation’ the next component of infowar, which he sees being used more and more.
Fake News Spreads
Acknowledging that this concept began with fake news, and that is something we’ve been hearing for ten to 15 years, but it can spread fast, as the public “has a desire to get quick answers.”
“The rate of news being ingested and there is a need for people to read news since the beginning of time” he said, and now fake news is moving beyond print to “have video, sound and text” but “the principles for fake news apply.”
Prompt Injection Attacks
Demeter said the next step beyond fake news will be around AI and large language model (LLM) poisoning, in particular around training AI machines. He explained that the concept of prompt injection attacks is around doing social engineering on AI.
This should lead to the development of AI protecting AI, as Demeter said there is experience in building technology to find and protect against malware, “but in future we may need an AI that protects your AI - don't know when, but it is a trend we believe is going to happen in the future.”
He also said that a personal AI will connect to other personal AI machines, and connect to services, leading to interactions which will be more AI based. “We will need cybersecurity protections to stop AI from leaking data, as we believe AI interaction will dominate the next two to three years,” he concluded.
Written by
Dan Raywood
Senior Editor
SC Media UK
Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with more than 20 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 16 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Conference, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and ESET Security Days.
Outside work, Dan enjoys supporting Tottenham Hotspur, managing mischievous cats, and sampling craft beers.
