How can AI be used to create malware?

12th March 2025

Artificial intelligence (AI) is advancing technological capabilities by automating processes, expanding existing abilities and improving efficiency, all in a user-friendly way.

As we reap the benefits of AI, so do cyber criminals. They can use AI to more effectively target your personal data and secure systems. Find out how:

Automated code generation: AI can create new variants of malware quickly, making it harder for security systems to react. For example, polymorphic malware changes its code every time it infects a new system.

Evasion techniques: AI can be used to analyse security systems and what measures they use and then can modify the malware to avoid being spotted. It can learn from failed attempts and adapt to get around endpoint detection.

Exploit weaknesses: AI can easily spot gaps in your IT security infrastructure and target those weak points to breach your systems.

Adversarial attacks: AI can trick machine learning models into misclassifying malicious activities as benign, infiltrating your systems undetected.

Social engineering: AI can generate convincing phishing emails and fake websites to trick users into revealing sensitive information.

Automated debugging: bad actors can use AI to analyse their code and refine it, ensuring that it works as intended.

Evidently, AI has a lot of advantages for cyber criminals, making it easier and faster to attempt data breaches. While it can be complex to use and potentially costly, many cyber criminals are starting to use AI for the numerous benefits it can offer.

What can you do to counteract this? Luckily, the one advantage is that just as AI can be used in cyber crime, it can also be used in cyber defence. As the threat advances, so does the protection.

If you would like to learn more please contact the Interfuture Security team HERE.