21st Century Crime: How Malicious Artificial Intelligence Will Impact Homeland Security

Citation
21st Century Crime: How Malicious Artificial Intelligence Will Impact Homeland Security (Mar. 2019)

Overview
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a field of research with the potential to radically change society's use of information technology, particularly how personal information will be interconnected and how private lives will be accessible to cybercriminals. Criminals, motivated by profit, are likely to adapt future AI software systems to their operations, further complicating present-day cybercrime investigations.

This thesis examines how transnational criminal organizations and cybercriminals may leverage developing AI technology to conduct more sophisticated criminal activities and what steps the homeland security enterprise should take to prepare. Through a future scenario methodology, four scenarios were developed to project how cybercriminals might use AI systems and what should be done now to protect the United States from the malicious use of AI. This thesis recommends that homeland security officials expand outreach initiatives among private industry and academia that are developing AI systems to understand the dual-use implications of emerging AI technology and to provide public security perspectives to AI research entities.

Finally, this thesis recommends that federal agencies develop specific initiatives &mdash; aligning with existing national cyber and AI strategies &mdash; that confront the potential challenge of future, AI-enabled cybercrime.