Talk

The Rise of AI-Driven Malware: Threats, Myths, and Defenses

March 14, 10:30 (CAMPUS)

Generative AI models, such as ChatGPT and Claude, are increasingly leveraged by cybercriminals to create malware, but how severe is the risk for organizations? This talk explores the real impact of AI-based malware and explains why it doesn’t mean the end of cyber defense.
We will delve into the distinctions between AI-powered, AI-generated, and AI-supported threats. We’ll illustrate these with examples of AI-generated threats that are still detectable. We’ll also cover polymorphic/metamorphic threats, such as ChattyCaty, which uses LLMs to dynamically alter its code. Following this, we’ll examine what a fully autonomous Terminator threat could look like and discuss the EyeSpy PoC.
Creating malware through AI represents an evolutionary, not revolutionary, step – so detection with existing methods remains viable. We’ll briefly demonstrate how we developed a Transformer model called EagleEye to effectively detect malicious behavior sequences.
Finally, we’ll explore the emerging field of indirect prompt injections, which can enable novel spreading and data exfiltration threats, particularly through systems like RAG and CoPilot.

Speaker

Candid Wuest

Candid Wuest is an experienced cybersecurity expert with over 25 years of passion in the field of security. He currently works as an independent security advisor for various companies and the Swiss government. Previously, he was the VP of Cyber Protection Research at Acronis, where he led the creation of the security department and the development of their EDR product. Before that, he spent more than sixteen years building Symantec's global security response team as the tech lead, analyzing malware and threats – from NetSky to Stuxnet. Wuest has published a book and various whitepapers and has been featured as a security expert in top-tier media outlets. He is a frequent speaker at security-related conferences, including RSAC and BlackHat, and organizer of AREA41 and BSidesZurich. He learned coding and the English language on a Commodore 64. He holds a Master of Computer Science from ETH Zurich and has various patents and useless certifications.

Organized by

Technology partners

Partner events

Scroll to Top