Cybersecurity in Focus: A Look Back at 10×10 digital.konkret!

10×10 digital.konkret at Sparkasse Ulm was fully booked. The event centered on current insights and discussions around cyberattacks and AI risks. SCHUTZWERK was among the participants: Dr. Bastian Könings gave a 10-minute lightning talk titled “New AI threats: How easily can AI be poisoned?” and took part in the subsequent panel discussion.

Key takeaways of the evening

Ransomware attacks: insights from investigative practice

Attackers are rarely highly specialized; rather, they are IT-savvy criminals who purchase ready-made ransomware. Almost always, simple, well-known vulnerabilities are exploited. One surprising takeaway: if a ransom must be paid, negotiating pays off – discounts of up to 50% are common. These insights into current ransomware investigations were shared by Ralf Möschen and Björn Jäschke from Criminal Investigation Unit 5 of the Ulm Criminal Police – based on a real case for which the General Public Prosecutor’s Office had exceptionally cleared the presentation of previously unpublished investigative details.

New attack surfaces through AI

Integrating AI into products and corporate IT opens up entirely new and sometimes still unknown attack vectors, which are often underestimated and insufficiently assessed. The architecture as well as the input and output paths of AI systems must be understood and protected accordingly. Dr. Könings warned of exactly these underestimated risks in his talk.

See also: AISecurityAssessment – how we identify vulnerabilities in AI applications.

AI as an accelerant

The use of AI on the attacker side currently primarily increases the quantity, not the quality, of attacks - according to David Elze’s assessment.

The time factor

While the necessary protective measures remain the same (patch management, 2FA, defense-in-depth, etc.), the time window for reacting is shrinking massively. New vulnerabilities are being exploited successfully faster than ever.

AI as an opportunity

When used correctly, AI helps companies react faster and prioritize protective measures more effectively.

Thank you to the organizers

Thank you to the organizers and everyone involved for the presentations, the panel discussion, and the networking afterwards.

🔗 All details about the event: ulm-digital.com