Artificial intelligence (AI) may not have the ability to replicate the creativity of human ethical hackers, but it is causing disruption in the field. According to the latest edition of Inside the Mind of a Hacker (ITMOAH), an annual report from Bugcrowd, AI is changing the way hackers conduct penetration testing and work on bug bounty programs.
While 21% of respondents stated that AI is already outperforming hackers, a larger majority (78%) predict that AI will disrupt their work in the near future. In fact, 40% of hackers believe that AI has already altered the hacking landscape, and 91% anticipate that generative AI will increase their work’s value. However, when it comes to the unique qualities of human hackers such as creativity and curiosity, 72% of respondents do not believe AI will ever be able to replicate these traits.
Bugcrowd’s hackers are embracing AI, with 85% having experimented with generative AI and 64% already incorporating it into their security workflows. The use of AI tools like Open AI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and Microsoft’s Bing Chat AI is prevalent among hackers.
Generative AI technology serves various purposes for hackers, including text summarization or generation, code generation, search enhancement, chatbots, image generation, data design, collection or summarization, and machine learning. Within security research workflows, hackers find generative AI useful for automating tasks, analyzing data, and identifying vulnerabilities.
It is noteworthy that generative AI is also being utilized by non-native English-speaking hackers for translation and report writing, fostering collaboration across borders.
Bugcrowd’s annual report not only provides insights into the hacker community’s mindset and processes but also aims to debunk negative stereotypes surrounding hackers. Founder and CTO of Bugcrowd, Casey Ellis, clarifies that hacking itself is not inherently bad; it is the intent behind its use that determines ethicality.
Bugcrowd’s ITMOAH report provides useful insights into hacker demographics and motivations, and it gives technical recommendations for security teams. It is a valuable report at a time when the ethical hacker community is undergoing significant changes because of the growth, challenges, and possibly disruptive nature of AI with respect to software and hardware development.
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