AI is set to enhance the ransomware threat by helping attackers with tasks such as scouting targets, locating weaknesses in IT networks and writing malicious code, said the NCSC.<\/p>\n
Last month, the government urged Britons<\/a> to stock up to nine litres of bottled water and three days\u2019 worth of food in order to ensure that households can survive a weather, cyber or other serious emergency. Wes Streeting, the defence secretary, said as the Be Ready campaign<\/a> was launched that Britain needed to prepare for the threat of \u201cstate-sponsored terrorism\u201d by Russia or other hostile powers targeting everyday infrastructure.<\/p>\n NCSC\u2019s chief executive, Richard Horne, will warn the public in a speech accompanying the review on Tuesday that AI is going to unleash a wave of cyber-attacks imminently.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the coming months, we face a real prospect of an unprecedented rise in the number of cyber incidents,\u201d he will say.<\/p>\n Horne will attribute the threat to the technology\u2019s ability to uncover weaknesses in IT systems that have been \u201ctolerated for far too long\u201d.<\/p>\n An example of AI\u2019s capacity to root out previously undetected vulnerabilities came last month, when the technology helped discover a critical weakness in PHP<\/a>, a computer language used by almost 70% of the world\u2019s websites<\/a>.<\/p>\n Alan Woodward, a professor of cybersecurity at Surrey University, said NCSC\u2019s warning underlined the need for nation states and companies to access cutting-edge AI technology.<\/p>\n
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