UK warns: AI-powered cyberattacks poised to surge, lowering entry point for novice criminals and amplifying threat landscape. Prepare for heightened attacks with smarter reconnaissance and evasion tactics.
The UK National Cyber Security Centre (“NCSC”) announced it had published a report on how AI will impact the efficacy of cyber operations and the cyber threats posed by AI over the next two years. The report concludes that AI “will almost certainly increase the volume and heighten the impact of cyber attacks over the next two years.”
The report also notes that all types of cyber threat actors, including state and non-state actors of varying skill levels, already use AI to some degree. The report further notes that AI provides a capability uplift in reconnaissance and social engineering, which will likely make both more effective and harder to detect, and that AI “lowers the barrier” for novice cybercriminals, hackers-for-hire, and hacktivists, which likely will contribute to the threat of ransomware on a global scale.
