PayPal keen to leverage AI for security solutions

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US-based fintech major, PayPal, is looking to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) to develop security solutions as the threat landscape intensifies, according to Assaf Keren, Chief Information Security Officer, PayPal.

The advent of Generative AI has created both opportunities and risks for companies. “With technology, opportunities exist to ensure that we do our jobs better by utilising new capabilities for security and also productivity. But the same technology is also empowering attackers and cybercriminals to amp up their capabilities. We are keen to explore how to fight AI using AI,” Keren told businessline.

PayPal is looking at security researchers, vendors, and firms that create security solutions to see how AI can be used more in the security products that businesses are creating globally. Keren said, “We are in an interesting place because we have been at the forefront of AI in the last 10 years and have been using it very aggressively, so I think we can uniquely capitalise on that.”

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The company is looking at the creation of an ecosystem of security, as threat landscapes are changing. “We do a lot to protect PayPal and its customers, but we can’t do it alone, we need to start understanding the security posture of our vendors in a better way. We need to start fighting this as a collective group and I think therefore our focus is going to be managing these threats and the evolving threat landscape that we are dealing with,” Keren said.

The senior executive further elaborates that for security professionals at large, the threat landscape has been accelerating in various ways, at least in the last three years. The threat landscape did not change as quickly as it is now. Still, recently with Covid-inducing moving from offices to homes, the current economic crisis, and geopolitical situations, more threats and changes in how threats manifest themselves against companies, including PayPal, are being seen, he notes.