Privacy and Security Concerns with Chatbots

Posted on: Apr 5, 2023 | 3 mins | Written by: HDFC ERGO Team

Privacy and Security Concerns with Chatbots

Have you come across a chatbot recently? It is highly probable that you have. You might have come across them either on your favourite food delivery app, insurance website, bank website, and so on. It is not surprising, given the advantages that they bring to the table. More organisations are opting for AI-powered chatbots, which can leverage automation to make way for better services. However, it does bring an important question, what about online privacy and security?

A lot of companies and websites have started implementing chatbots since they make redundant work quite easy. Yet, there are some concerns about online privacy and security, with the data on hand. Are chatbots safe? Is your data with chatbots safe? Do chatbots compromise your data in any form? Here are some of these answers.

What is a chatbot?

Given the times that we are in, a lot of us expect services to be up and running throughout the day. If products and services are to be available all through the day, it is only sensible to have customer service or support available for those times as well. However, it can be quite challenging to have agents available 24/7. This is where chatbots come into the picture. Instead of agents, chatbots can welcome users or guests to the products or services and even handle basic queries via artificial intelligence. If there are some questions that they are unable to answer, they will eventually redirect them to agents who can handle these queries better. It also reduces the burden on agents during peak hours, when a lot of simple queries can be solved by the chatbots.

If you have already come across any chatbots, you will realise that there are a lot of benefits to using them. They make way for much better customer service. They can reduce the wait time for customers dramatically and engage them almost instantly. And in a lot of cases, they can engage visitors or leads which would otherwise be lost. And then, they are affordable. They can bring down the operating cost of businesses by a considerable margin as well.

Yet, there are some concerns regarding online privacy and security. Since chatbots are expected to offer a more personalised experience, they do have access to a wide range of data. And without adequate precautions, they can pose a considerable threat.

Possible vulnerabilities with chatbots:

A system can have one or more vulnerabilities, which are essentially some weaknesses in the system, that can be exposed for other motives. Attackers and hackers can use these vulnerabilities to make their way into a system. Some common reasons for vulnerabilities include a lack of strong coding methodologies, errors in the system, or a weak network system.

As a business, it is essential to constantly test the systems to identify such vulnerabilities and take remedial steps. Combining these with cyber security insurance policies is one of the more prudent ways of tackling vulnerabilities in chatbots. Here are some common vulnerabilities that companies must consider before implementing chatbots.

● Ensuring that employees are adequately trained, and there are sufficient protocols to avoid accidentally opening backdoors to the system or exposing some flaws.

● Ensuring that the communication between customers and the chatbots is encrypted, especially when the database servers are a part of the communication.

● Ensuring that the hosting systems do not have any vulnerabilities and that they are regularly patched with updates.

Possible threats with chatbots:

Following are some of the common threats that are likely to happen due to chatbots.

● A major threat is the imitation of chatbots. A hacker can imitate to be a chatbot and continue the conversation with a customer. And a customer might reveal some personal information, considering that they are interacting with a business entity or specific to their request.

● If a chatbot does not use adequate measures such as encryption of data, there is a possibility of data theft in such cases. It is also possible for miscreants to alter the data, which can even lead to data loss or corruption.

● Cybercriminals can use malware and ransomware in the system to get access to private data and even hold the data hostage. On the other hand, they can even spread malware and ransomware via chatbots.

If you want to protect your privacy online, opting for cyber security insurance can be one of the smartest steps.

Also Read: 5 Key Data Privacy problems related to AI

Ways to avoid the vulnerabilities:

Though there are possibilities of a few vulnerabilities, chatbots do bring a lot of positives and improvements to the existing systems. And these vulnerabilities can exist within any system. Here are some ways to address these vulnerabilities and protect your privacy online.

1. Educating employees:

Educating employees is essential, and even more so at a time when new technological advancements are regular. If employees aren’t educated about the new systems, it poses a major risk with a lot of potential vulnerabilities.

User error can be a detrimental factor in such cases. Thus, it is important for organisations to train their employees regularly and even watch their activities.

2. Strong authentication:

All the systems in a business should be encrypted and not just the chatbots. End-to-end encryption reduces the chances of eavesdropping on data to a large extent. It ensures that the data can only be seen by the end-user and the chatbot, and no one in the middle can interact with the data. There are already a few famous products that use these kinds of encryption techniques.

In conjunction, businesses should also invest in strong authentication techniques. Adequate authorisation and authentication will avoid occurrences of impersonation of chatbots by malicious parties.

3. Introduction of new protocols:

In order to accommodate the new changes, it is critical for businesses to introduce security processes and protocols. In effect, these define the development process along with the implementation, maintenance, management, and encryption of data. The processes also outline the different ways in which employees can interact with systems and raise red flags.

By introducing new protocols and processes, businesses can make sure that the possibilities of vulnerabilities reduce to a large extent. Also, it is important to keep the processes and protocols up to date.

Given the responsibility of keeping the online privacy and security of customers, it is pertinent that businesses take adequate measures to make chatbots even more efficient. Opting for comprehensive cyber security insurance can greatly reduce your exposure to risks as well.

Conclusion

By introducing chatbots, a lot of organisations and businesses have ensured that customers have access to better and around-the-clock service. Chatbots can also help prevent some of the leads from moving away from the competition. However, online privacy and security remain one of the biggest challenges. The techniques mentioned above, along with cyber security insurance, will ensure better protection against vulnerabilities.

Disclaimer: The above information is for illustrative purpose only. For more details, please refer to policy wordings and prospectus before concluding the sales.

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