What is data poisoning?

It's crucial to understand the different types of attacks to defend against:

• Availability attacks aim to decrease AI model performance. This can be achieved by introducing irrelevant or noisy data into the training set.
• Backdoor attacks attempt to implant a hidden functionality within the AI model. This can allow attackers to manipulate the model's behavior for malicious purposes, even if the model appears to function normally on the surface.
• Targeted attacks focus on manipulating the model's performance for specific inputs. For example, an attacker might poison the training data to cause the model to misclassify a particular image or text sample.
• Subpopulation attacks target specific subgroups within the data distribution. This can involve poisoning the data to bias the model's performance against a particular demographic or category.
• Training attacks change a big part of the training data to trick the AI model into making wrong decisions. Bad actors add misleading or harmful examples to make the model biased.
• Model inversion attacks exploit the AI model's responses to deduce sensitive information about the data it was trained on. By manipulating queries and analyzing the model's outputs, there is a risk of extracting private details or gaining insights into the dataset.
• Stealth attacks manipulate the training data to create hidden vulnerabilities. The goal is to exploit these weaknesses without detection once the model is deployed in real-world scenarios.

Google's anti-spam filters serve as a notable case of data poisoning. Attackers manipulated the training data, redefining what constituted spam, allowing malicious emails to bypass detection. This illustrates how data poisoning can disrupt AI systems and compromise security.

Another instance is the 2016 case of Tay, a Twitter chatbot designed to learn from user interactions. Unfortunately, malicious actors bombarded Tay with offensive and harmful tweets, poisoning its learning process. This permanently altered Tay's responses, forcing Microsoft to shut it down.

Here are some crucial steps to protect your AI systems:

1. Cleanse data: Ensure high-quality training data by removing suspicious entries and regularly validating its integrity.
2. Validate data: Double-check your data for suspicious elements that might trick your model.
3. Train with toughness: Use robust training techniques to make your model less vulnerable to attacks.
4. Monitor constantly: Watch your model's performance to catch any unusual behavior.
5. Secure your sources: Verify the integrity and trustworthiness of your data sources.
6. Diversify data: Use data augmentation to create a more diverse dataset, making it harder to manipulate.
7. Update and retrain: Keep your model fresh with new, reliable data to improve its performance and resilience.
8. Validate user input: Check user input before using it to prevent harmful data from entering your model.
9. Evaluate properly: Use poison-aware metrics to assess your model's vulnerability to data poisoning attacks.
10. Educate and train: Teach your team about data poisoning and how to keep your model safe.