%X Cyberattacks are becoming more sophisticated and ubiquitous. Cybercriminals are inevitably
adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to evade the cyberspace and cause greater
damages without being noticed. Researchers in cybersecurity domain have not researched the
concept behind AI-powered cyberattacks enough to understand the level of sophistication this
type of attack possesses. This paper aims to investigate the emerging threat of AI-powered
cyberattacks and provide insights into malicious used of AI in cyberattacks. The study was
performed through a three-step process by selecting only articles based on quality, exclusion, and
inclusion criteria that focus on AI-driven cyberattacks. Searches in ACM, arXiv Blackhat,
Scopus, Springer, MDPI, IEEE Xplore and other sources were executed to retrieve relevant
articles. Out of the 936 papers that met our search criteria, a total of 46 articles were finally
selected for this study. The result shows that 56% of the AI-Driven cyberattack technique
identified was demonstrated in the access and penetration phase, 12% was demonstrated in
exploitation, and command and control phase, respectively; 11% was demonstrated in the
reconnaissance phase; 9% was demonstrated in the delivery phase of the cybersecurity kill chain.
The findings in this study shows that existing cyber defence infrastructures will become
inadequate to address the increasing speed, and complex decision logic of AI-driven attacks.
Hence, organizations need to invest in AI cybersecurity infrastructures to combat these emerging
threats.
%T The Emerging Threat of Ai-driven Cyber
Attacks: A Review
%J Applied Artificial Intelligence An International Journal
%A Blessing Guembe
%A A. A. Azeta
%A Sanjay Misra
%A V. C. Osamor
%A Luis Fernandez-Sanz
%A Vera Pospelova
%L eprints15776
%R https://doi.org/10.1080/08839514.2022.2037254
%I Taylor and Francis Online
%D 2021