Generative AI has greatly expanded the toolkit available to hackers and other malicious actors, allowing them to do everything from impersonating a CEO to creating fake receipts.
Generative AI has greatly expanded the toolkit available to hackers and other malicious actors, allowing them to do everything from impersonating a CEO to creating fake receipts.
OpenAI, the largest generative AI startup, knows this better than anyone, which is why it has invested in another artificial intelligence startup that helps companies defend against such attacks, writes TechCrunch.
New York-based company Adaptive Security has raised $43 million in Series A funding, along with startup fund OpenAI and Andreessen Horowitz.
OpenAI confirmed to TechCrunch that this is OpenAI’s first investment in a cybersecurity startup. Adaptive Security simulates AI-generated hacks to train employees to detect these threats. You might pick up the phone to hear your CTO’s voice asking for a verification code. This isn’t your actual CTO, but a fake one generated by Adaptive Security.
The Adaptive Security platform doesn't just spoof phone calls: it also covers texts and emails, while assessing which parts of the company may be most vulnerable and training staff to spot risks.
The startup focuses on hacks that require an employee to do something they shouldn’t, such as clicking on a bad link. Such social engineering hacks, while basic, have led to huge losses. In 2022, Axie Infinity lost over $600 million due to a fake job offer for one of its developers.
AI tools have made social engineering hacks easier than ever, co-founder and CEO Brian Long told TechCrunch. Adaptive, which launched in 2023, currently has more than 100 customers, and Long says positive feedback from them helped bring OpenAI to the mainstream.
Long is a seasoned entrepreneur with two previous successes: mobile advertising startup TapCommerce, which he sold to Twitter in 2014 (reportedly for over $100 million), and ad tech firm Attentive, which was last valued at over $10 billion in 2021, according to one of its investors. Long told TechCrunch that Adaptive Security will use its latest funding mostly to hire engineers to build its product and support AI against attackers.
Adaptive Security joins a long list of other cyber startups working on AI threats. Cyberhaven just raised $100 million at a valuation of
$1 billion to help employees avoid adding sensitive information to tools like ChatGPT, Forbes reports. There's also Snyk, which partly credits the rise of insecure AI-generated code for helping it grow ARR to $300 million.
Last month, deepfake detection startup GetReal raised $17.5 million. As AI threats become more sophisticated, Long advises his employees who are concerned about their voices being cloned to delete their voicemails.
