Experts Warn Dark AI Threats In Asia Pacific To Create Sophisticated Attacks

Illustration of cyber attacks (photo: Freepik)

JAKARTA - global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky discovered a more sophisticated and hidden attack driven by the rise of dark artificial intelligence (AI) in Asia Pacific.

Kaspersky experts have revealed that attackers will use AI technology to launch their actions, ranging from simple attacks such as phishing, to state-backed cyber espionage.

They explained that Dark AI refers to the application of local or long-distance large language models (LLM) that are not restricted to the full framework or chatbot systems used for malicious, unethical, or illegitimate purposes.

The system operates beyond security control, compliance, or standard governance, which often allows capabilities such as fraud, manipulation, cyberattack, or misuse of data without supervision.

"We are entering an era of cybersecurity and a society where AI is a shield and Dark AI is its sword," said Sergey Lozhkin, Head of the Global Research & Analysis Team (GREAT) for META and APAC at Kaspersky.

One of the most well-known Dark AIs currently according to Lozhkin is in the form of a Black Hat GPT, which has emerged since 2023, which is used for illegal or malicious activities such as designing phishing emails, creating voice or video deepfakes, and even supporting Red Team operations.

"AI is not inherently able to distinguish between right and wrong, but rather a tool that follows orders. Even when the protection has been implemented, we know APT is a persistent striker," added Lozhkin.

Therefore, he added, along with the increasingly accessible and capable dark AI devices, it is important for organizations and individuals in Asia Pacific to strengthen cybersecurity hygiene, invest in AI-backed threat detection itself, and continue to learn how this technology can be exploited.