Automation aside, Google is significantly increasing its efforts to tackle India’s digital fraud largely with artificial intelligence (AI). With a mission to scale AI-powered tools across organizations of all sizes, the company is on a mission to address the expanding menace of cybercrime. This partnership is just one piece of a broader strategy announced last November to increase investments in security operations. Its ultimate goal is to defend users against the exploitation of technology.
Adkins, the founding member of Google’s security team, has spent more than 23 years at the company’s helm. He expressed that one of the biggest areas of concern right now, though, is the use and misuse of AI in harmful ways by bad actors. With the rapid development of cyber threats, he called for robust and rigorous testing of AI models. Through this testing, we’re making sure that the models know what actions they should not take.
As Adkins puts it, the biggest global misuse of AI is going to be in the near future. He noted that AI-enhanced tools will make everyone susceptible to attacks from those without expertise. This development further increases the risk that users face worldwide. The price of these tools ranges widely. Prices range from basic applications at $20 to some advanced capabilities as high as $200,000.
Advancements in Multi-Factor Authentication
MFA is one of the most important steps Adkins and the others mentioned, but it’s a start to begin requiring such security measures. He also suggested that users in India would find SMS-based authentication more convenient than other forms of MFA. Yet this demonstrates a much larger need – security solutions that are appropriate to community preferences and existing practices.
“One of the things you don’t want to do is constrain yourself too much in the early research days.” – Adkins
He knew that convincing Indian users to abandon the password as we know it would be a challenge. The country’s demographic diversity and economic landscape only complicate this transition further. This reality is why a more localized approach to digital security, one aware of the unique habits and technological comfort of local people, is required.
Adkins likened the current state of AI technology to the early days of the internet. Back then, safety was just an add-on. He cautioned that with all digital tools, the cyber threats will become more but not limited to advanced.
“The industry is moving very, very quickly [by] putting protocols out. It’s almost like the early days of the internet, where everybody’s releasing code in real time, and we’re thinking about safety after the fact.” – Adkins
Combatting Cyber Threats
Google is increasing its investment in AI-powered security features in India. Adkins highlighted the importance of working together with the research community and developers to better understand and proactively tackle issues related to AI. He further testified that there are vendors around the world selling tools designed for spying on people, including sophisticated markets in India.
He said he was most troubled by the pace at which threat actors are progressing their methodology. Thanks to the advantages of translation and new technology like deepfakes and AI-generated imagery, phishing scams have become more sophisticated.
“For example, to make phishing scams a bit more effective — especially if the actor and the target have different languages — they can use the benefit of translation to make the scams more believable using deepfakes, images, video, etc.” – Adkins
Adkins noted that there have been instances of digital arrests in India. This signals a move away from analog scams to their digital versions. That emphasizes the pressing need for increased security protections in an era where cybercrime has exploded.
Future Steps for Google in India
Adkins imagines a central role for Google in enhancing India’s cybersecurity capacity. He wants to develop a safety charter focused on three pillars. He predicated that Google plans to use India’s global engineering talents to focus on solving the country’s challenges in impactful ways.
“These three areas will become part of our safety charter for India, and over the coming years… we want to use the fact that we have engineering capability here to solve for what’s happening in India, close to where the users are.” – Adkins
Google’s pledge to fight digital fraud is a strong indicator that the tech giant understands the complex, far-reaching challenges that cybercrime creates around the globe. As active AI technology is developing and creating unequal constant change, Google has even greater responsibility of user protection by staying a few steps ahead of new threats.