Buy This AI Good Guy to Combat $10.5 Trillion in Cybercrimes
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| By Michael A. Robinson |
I don’t mean to alarm you, but my wife recently received a convincing cyber scam attempt.
The hacker pretended to be our daughter, Jordan, and asked for money to be sent through the popular financial app Venmo.
Now, most scams like this are easy to spot. You’ll often find poor spelling or grammatical errors. But not this one. It was nearly flawless, and it almost duped my wife.
What made it so convincing? While I can’t prove it, I’m convinced that artificial intelligence played a big role.
And while that’s not necessarily good news for ordinary, unsuspecting folks …
It’s great news for investors like us looking to invest in the defense of this “new way to scam” in a sector on its way to being worth $425 billion.
Be Careful Out There
The sobering stats on cybercrimes show the need to remain ever vigilant, to say the least:
- According to Ipsos, nearly one in three Americans fell victim to online financial fraud in 2023.
- The average amount of money lost by businesses as a result of cybercrime in 2023 was $1.3 million.
- And the total cost of cybercrime globally reached $8 trillion in 2023 — and is projected to hit $10.5 trillion by next year.
How are cybercriminals still so good at launching attacks? AI has sure helped …
You see, AI has lowered the barrier to entry for malicious actors.
AI Makes it Easy to Scam
Cybercriminals use large language models like ChatGPT to write malicious code.
They use AI to spread malware — software designed to gain access to a computer system.
They even offer subscription services and starter kits to those aspiring to commit their own nefarious online activities.
Cyber criminals are also latching onto generative AI tools in a bid to fool people and organizations into sending them money.
One such tool is called WormGPT. Fittingly named, it’s an AI-powered tool that helps cyber thieves automate highly personalized phishing emails, which are sinister messages that appear to come from someone you know and trust.
If you click on a link, you could get hit with malicious software or be duped into sending money to a bad actor.
But fortunately for all of us (including my wife), AI is also on hand to help the good guys. And the timing couldn’t be better …
Here Come the Good Guys
CyberArk Software (CYBR) is a leader when it comes to cyber defense.
It makes the industry’s most comprehensive privileged access protection software platform. And its Endpoint Privilege Manager helps companies deal with remote workers.
Using the platforms, IT departments can make sure people working from home have the least-privileged accounts they can while still doing their jobs.
The company is based in Israel. But due to its global presence, its business is still churning despite the recent turmoil in the region.
CyberArk boasts many notable clients, including pharmaceutical giants AstraZeneca (AZN), Novartis (NVS) and Pfizer (PFE).There also are global tech leaders like Qualcomm (QCOM) and Motorola (MSI) … and food brands like Conagra (CAG) and Hershey (HSY).
Early AI Adopter
In 2020, the company made a savvy move by launching its own AI-powered service to remove excessive cloud-based permissions.
Its Cloud Entitlements Manager uses AI to detect and prevent hidden, mistaken or unused accounts from being misused. All findings are displayed in a single dashboard that enables IT security to monitor, add or remove user accounts and privileges.
This service is a key component of CyberArk’s Identity Security strategy that starts with zero trust and uses AI to understand context and intent.
Last September, CyberArk announced a new AI Center for Excellence, with the goal of advancing the use of generative AI to improve security.
Essentially, this center will work with CyberArk Labs to evolve AI-powered defenses such as risk analysis and risk reduction.
These are just a few ways AI can be used for good when it comes to cyber activity …
Cyber Benefits of AI
AI may be helping bad actors commit cybercrimes …
But it’s also been vital in terms of helping thwart them.
Here are a few notable benefits:
- AI can recognize patterns and perform proactive actions on the user’s behalf.
- AI can provide continuous, round-the-clock monitoring.
- AI can identify false positives, a major challenge for human security and IT professionals.
- And AI can even be used to mitigate insider threats.
These benefits demonstrate why AI is so important when it comes to cyber security, and part of the reason that Fortune Business Insights predicts that, by 2030, the global cyber market will be worth $425 billion.
Profits Are on the Rise
AI’s rise as an essential tool is also what puts companies like CyberArk in such a good position.
While earnings growth has been soft in recent years, that is set to change in 2024. Per-share profits are estimated to grow by 57% this year, according to data from Investor Business Daily.
If we cut that figure in half to be conservative, we’d still see this company’s earnings double in about 2.5 years. And when earnings double, stock prices often do, too.
As investors, we can be on the CyberArk team defeating bad actors, while at the same time, earning some nice profits along the way — making this a great double win.
That’s all for today. I’ll be back with more soon.
Best,
Michael A. Robinson
P.S. AI can do a lot more than just fight bad actors in cyberspace. In fact, just this week, Weiss Ratings unveiled our most-ambitious AI project yet. Click here to see it for yourself.
