AI Tools Making AI Fools – Ep 499 

Cybersecurity: It’s like flossing—we all know we should do it, but a shocking number of people just…don’t. This week, we’re digging into the annual cybersecurity attitudes and behaviors report, which reveals just how careless people are with their passwords, personal info, and, well, basic online survival skills. But don’t worry, AI is here to save us! Or, possibly, to make things even worse. We’ll also explore how AI tools are being used (and misused), and why a scary number of people are feeding them sensitive work info like it’s a buffet. Buckle up—this one’s got some eye-opening stats!

In this episode:

AI Tools Making AI Fools – Ep 499

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AI Tools Making AI Fools

Oh Behave! The Annual Cybersecurity Attitudes and Behaviors Report 2024

• The report was released in late September 2024 for CSAM. They have some great information that we just have never had a chance to cover.
• They make a very good point that we must understand what people think and what they do AND why they do it in order to actually make a difference in our cybersecurity stance. We talk about how everyone is now part of the security team but just saying it does not make people become more security conscious and less risky.
• So, here we are with another reason we have to venture into behavioral science. This report is all about helping us understand behaviors to better secure our systems from humans.
• Survey included over 7K people
• Focus on five critical behaviors
  • Password hygiene including how they create them, do they use shared passwords and how do they manage them.
  • Use of MFA
  • Patching
  • Backing up data
  • Checking messages for signs of phishing and reporting them
• [12:34] Here are some additional stats on this:
  • 30% of participants expressed there is no point in protecting themselves as their information is already online, up 8% from 2023.
  • Over a third (35%) of participants included personal information in their passwords.
  • 40% of participants reported creating passwords using a single dictionary word or someone’s name, an increase across all generations since 2023, with Gen Z being the highest at 52%. If we had to summarize in a word what people think they know, vs what they do, it would be this: Doh!
  • The majority (83%) of those who accessed training at their workplace or place of education found it useful. The biggest impacts reported were on recognizing and reporting phishing messages (52%) and using MFA (45%, an 11% increase from 2023). Overall, there were increases in the perceived impact of training on all security behaviors compared to 2023.
  • People expect security as standard. Apps and platforms were deemed the most accountable by 90% of respondents.
• [25:00] The interesting thing that came up was when they asked about AI because you know they had to do it. How do they use it, what are they worried about and how much do they trust it?
  • Over half (56%) of participants report not using any AI tools.
  • Among users of AI tools, 17% use them at home, 11% at work, and 16% in both settings.
  • AI usage was highest among younger participants (72% of Gen Z).
  • ChatGPT was the most popular generative AI tool, used by 65% of participants who use AI tools.
  • More than half of employed participants (52%) and students (58%) had not received training on safe AI use.
  • A terrifying 38% admitted to sharing sensitive work information with AI without their employer’s knowledge, and this was more prominent among younger generations.

That last bit there is why they are launching a new awareness campaign that we encourage everyone to participate in some way.

StaySafeOnline AI Fools Program

If you want to know why things like these are important training opportunities – check out this information we got about how the bad guys are getting better at what they do by using AI. If they are improving and we don’t even understand it – we are already losing the battle.

That’s why they created AI Fools Week 2025—a one-week awareness campaign (March 31–April 4, 2025) dedicated to educating the public about AI security and privacy.

• How to spot AI-generate scams
• Risks of sharing with AI
• How to use AI wisely

You get all the content just like they do in CSAM but this one focused on AI the whole time.

Darcula DIY Malware Simplifies Phishing

This thing is scary for sure.

“The soon-to-be-deployed Darcula DIY phishing kit takes phishing as-a-service (PhaaS) capabilities a step further, allowing anyone to imitate any brand and target users with a click of a button, according to London-based company Netcraft.”

You give it a url of the brand you want to impersonate. It will create everything you need based on that branding and generate your “admin panel” to manage your campaigns.

So, what have we learned today? People are still making questionable cybersecurity choices, AI is being trusted a little too much, and hackers are loving every minute of it. Whether it’s bad passwords, oversharing with AI, or assuming that cybersecurity is someone else’s problem, the risks are real. But hey, knowledge is power! The more we understand these threats, the better we can protect ourselves (and keep our grandparents from wiring money to fake kidnappers). So stay informed, be skeptical, and for the love of data—update your passwords, enable MFA, and maybe don’t copy-paste company secrets into an AI chatbot. If it sounds too good to be true, it’s probably AI-generated.

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