Report: AI increasingly being used to target small businesses

Report: AI increasingly being used to target small businesses

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used to target small businesses, according to a new annual report from the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC).

WASHINGTON - Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used to target small businesses, according to a new annual report from the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC).

By the numbers:

The report examines the impacts of identity crimes and cyberattacks on small businesses. Altogether, the ITRC surveyed 662 small business owners or executives.

Among the findings: 81 percent of small businesses reported suffering a security breach, a data breach, or both in the past year. Also, AI-powered attacks were identified as a root cause in more than 40 percent of cyber events.

It's not just businesses taking a hit either.

Researchers said that for the first time, 38.3 percent of small business leaders reported they "raised prices" to address the financial impacts of an incident.

What they're saying:

"That’s an inflationary act. That’s a tax," ITRC President James E. Lee said of the price increases. "We’re calling it a cyber tax because all of those expenses are more than small businesses can bear, and they’re having to increase prices, which is just driving inflation."

"This is an economic issue. It’s a national security issue," Lee said of the overall problem, adding that AI is being used in a variety of ways to target these businesses. That includes bad actors using the technology to design perfect-looking fake websites, texts, or emails. He also said it's being used to analyze stolen data.

"All of this information about us in these data breaches can now be analyzed the same way a business analyzes its marketing data.," Lee explained.

Dig deeper:

To read the ITRC's full report, you can find it here.