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The Glaring Security Risks With AI Browser Agents

posted by janrinok on Monday October 27, @04:41PM   

AnonTechie writes:

TechCrunch

New AI-powered web browsers such as OpenAI's ChatGPT ATLAS and Perplexity's Comet are trying to unseat Google Chrome as the front door to the internet for billions of users. A key selling point of these products are their web browsing AI agents, which promise to complete tasks on a user's behalf by clicking around on websites and filling out forms.

But consumers may not be aware of the major risks to user privacy that come along with agentic browsing, a problem that the entire tech industry is trying to grapple with.

Cybersecurity experts who spoke to TechCrunch say AI browser agents pose a larger risk to user privacy compared to traditional browsers. They say consumers should consider how much access they give web browsing AI agents, and whether the purported benefits outweigh the risks.

[...] There are a few practical ways users can protect themselves while using AI browsers. Rachel Tobac, CEO of the security awareness training firm SocialProof Security, tells TechCrunch that user credentials for AI browsers are likely to become a new target for attackers. She says users should ensure they're using unique passwords and multi-factor authentication for these accounts to protect them.

Tobac also recommends users to consider limiting what these early versions of ChatGPT Atlas and Comet can access, and siloing them from sensitive accounts related to banking, health, and personal information. Security around these tools will likely improve as they mature, and Tobac recommends waiting before giving them broad control.

Based on these concerns, would you use such browsers ?

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Original Submission

• Not based on those risks, butNot based on those risks, but (Score: 5, Interesting) by krishnoid on Monday October 27, @05:07PM (3 children)

  by krishnoid (1156) on Monday October 27, @05:07PM (#1422491)

  Google has been working on Chrome from Chromium since ~2010, and it's seen continuous development through multiple web standards/revisions from at least one internal group through that entire period. Google's products have to run on a rock-solid browser, and Chrome and others have, if you will, tempered their browsers in the furnace of a wide range of hourly public use for over a decade. Oh yeah, and the DevTools part that could easily be a for-cost addon for developers.

  ChatGPT is taking some browser tech and shoehorning their product into it, rather than sandboxing it as a plugin, with no indication that they'll dedicate resources to supporting it in the future. Which part of that should I trust?

  Starting Score:	1		point
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• Re:Not based on those risks, butRe:Not based on those risks, but (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 28, @03:20AM (2 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 28, @03:20AM (#1422569)

  You're not wrong about all that, but google's products have to run on whatever browser advertisers feel like targeting. "Rock-solid" is at the option of the sheep.

  Parent

  • Re:Not based on those risks, butRe:Not based on those risks, but (Score: 3, Touché) by krishnoid on Tuesday October 28, @05:24AM (1 child)

    by krishnoid (1156) on Tuesday October 28, @05:24AM (#1422573)

    Advertisers like ... Google?

    Parent

    • Re:Not based on those risks, but(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 28, @06:10AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 28, @06:10AM (#1422574)

      No, the people that pay Google to show their adverts to humans.

      Parent