The looming danger of AI-fueled attacks on critical infrastructure

Critical infrastructure connected to the internet will become more vulnerable to attacks as cybercriminals use artificial intelligence to scan for weak points.

“These types of networks are particularly attractive because the security of the devices themselves is low and because the damage that can be done with this type of attack is substantial,” Alejandro Dutto, director of security engineering for Tenable Latin America and the Caribbean, told BNamericas.

Tenable is focused on industrial asset protection.

Attacks on critical infrastructure could lead to power outages, energy shortages or the failure of other essential services.

According to Dutto, operational network devices were designed for a world where they should not be connected to the internet, so they do not have inherent security by design. Furthermore, most operational critical networks were isolated from corporate IT networks until four or five years ago.

But Dutto highlighted that AI tools will be used more widely to understand risk exposure of critical infrastructure, both by organizations for their protection and by cybercriminals who want to exploit weaknesses.

“An analysis of the vulnerabilities of a network and then exploiting them can take a long time for a traditional person or system, but if we put artificial intelligence into this mix, these times are drastically reduced,” he said.

Dutto added that attacks on critical infrastructure are mainly carried out by government-funded organizations.

“In Latin America, we are a target of attack, and it is even often a kind of testbed for more important attacks on critical infrastructure in more developed countries,” he said.

Data the company collected at a global level showed that 43% of attacks on organizations are successful and require remediation once they end.

Cloud

According to Dutto, next year will also see greater emphasis on security issues regarding integration with the cloud.

He said that cloud-native application services or workflows depend 100% on the organizations that create them and, as they are access points for external users, they are often vulnerable to attacks.

“If they are not secured [cloud-native applications] are one more access point on the attack surface,” he said. In a 2024 cloud security survey conducted by the company, 58% of respondents said they suffered damage due to exposure of confidential data.

The companies most affected by exposure were in the information technology (73%) and retail (72%) verticals, followed by media and telecoms (57%), manufacturing (57%), food (56%), banking, finance and insurance (53%), health and pharmaceuticals (48%), software (38%), and government and public services (38%).