48% of employees in Saudi Arabia fear losing their jobs to AI, yet 52% welcome them to do dangerous work

AI use is on the rise, which poses a risk to the existence of many jobs across regions. Recently the ChatGPT bot was made available to the public – it can maintain a coherent conversation, explain complex scientific concepts, artistically translate texts between languages, and much more. Other types of robots have been among people for years, washing cars, delivering orders, sorting goods in warehouses, delivering pills to patients, and doing assembly works at plants. According to Kaspersky research[1], there are concerns among employees in Saudi Arabia in regards to robots and automation systems used by companies. Around half (48%) are afraid of losing their job to robots, and almost one out of four employees 23% reported they heard of cybersecurity incidents with robots or automated systems in their company. At the same time, many employees see the positive aspects that robotization brings to them.

“Back in 2017 at the Black Hat conference, researchers Billy Rios and Jonathan Butts demonstrated how to hack an automatic car wash and what threat this poses to humans. They studied a PDQ LaserWash automatic car wash system, which can be connected to the internet, and found a way to hijack it. They even showed that it’s possible to slam the bay door into a car, which could endanger not only the vehicle, but also the driver,” comments Emad Haffar, Head of Technical Experts at Kaspersky. “While some individuals and organizations are wary of automatization and refrain from using it, others adapt their processes to get the most benefits from the newest technologies. As further business digitization is inevitable, companies around the world need to explore how to make automated solutions more secure and efficient for business needs.”

To keep industrial computer systems protected from various threats, Kaspersky experts recommend:

Conducting regular security assessments of OT systems to identify and eliminate possible cyber security issues.

Establishing continuous vulnerability assessment and triage as a basement for effective vulnerability management process. Dedicated solutions like Kaspersky Industrial CyberSecurity may become an efficient assistant and a source of unique actionable information, not fully available to the public.

Performing timely updates of key components to the company’s OT network; applying security fixes and patches or implementing measures to compensate as soon as it is technically possible. This is crucial to preventing a major incident that might cost millions due to the disruptions to the production process.

Using Industrial EDR solutions such as Kaspersky Industrial Cybersecurity for Nodes with EDR for timely detection of sophisticated threats, investigation, and effective remediation of incidents.

Enhance your response to new and advanced malicious techniques by developing and strengthening the incident prevention, detection, and response skills of your teams. Dedicated OT security training for IT security teams and OT personnel is one of the key measures to help to achieve this goal.