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Cybersecurity threats are becoming more sophisticated as businesses increasingly adopt digital technologies and AI-powered systems. From phishing scams and digital fraud to deepfake-enabled attacks, organizations today face a rapidly evolving threat landscape that targets both technology and human behavior.
This episode of the Analytics Insight Podcast explores how companies can strengthen cybersecurity defenses in the age of AI-driven threats. Pavan Kushwaha, Founder and CEO of Kratikal and Threatcop, shares insights into the growing cyberattack ecosystem, the risks posed by deepfakes, and why organizations must build a strong security-conscious culture to stay protected.
Ans: I started this company back in 2012 when my email account got hacked, right? So someone kind of sent me a phishing link, uh, the usual phishing link, which is now the kind of attack that you mentioned on a weekly level, the kind of attacks that are happening. So I received this phishing email. I clicked on the phishing email, and I actually got compromised… that's when Kratikal and Threatcop were born.
At Kratikal, we check this from a hacker's point of view and tell you exactly: these are the number of vulnerabilities you have, and this is how you can plug them. So we'll act as a hacker to see through your system, plug those vulnerabilities, and help your developer fix those issues.
Ans: Hacking or fraud, I will generally call it digital robbery. It's highly scalable. People sitting in, let's say, a remote part of the world, be it Pakistan or Nigeria, can do the same thing as in India. So, you've seen those digital arrests happening and all those things. Because of this, the adoption of digital technologies has opened up an entirely new attack surface.
Ans: One more thing that I've seen so far is that in the case of business addresses, these people have also started creating deepfakes. So, someone like me can be deepfaked very easily. There are tools available for deepfakes. People can also deepfake videos. There was a recent attack in which one of the companies lost $25 million. Where the CFO came on a Zoom call, and then he kind of approved a particular transaction, which he was not supposed to approve. He was not the real guy; it was an AI that was talking. So obviously, this particular system, or the penetration of the internet along with the AI, has actually increased the attack surface for hackers, and these bad actors
Ans: When you said 19 out of 20, which is close to 95% attacks that are actually driven by humans. The reason is, I told you previously, 12 years back, the attack surface was also technology. But now we have matured enough to kind of build, put security in place before we even go to production. So we, like I said, whenever someone is building an app, they come to us, and we test it from a hacker's point of view and tell them, this is what they're missing, and this is what a hacker can exploit.
Ans: I think the predominantly fundamental thing that you really have to understand, right now, is that AI has made life a little easier. In terms of understanding the behavior, be it system calls, be it human behavior, anything that you see. This is like it's a fight between AI and AI. So you already have systems where people are using them to attack these organizations, and then you have a system that is again capable of AI, which is kind of securing those people and trying to find those attacks.
To know more about the discussion, listen to the full podcast.
