The report also highlighted that the effective use of AI in cyber operations will depend on the quality of data available for training AI models. Currently, only highly capable states are believed to have large enough malware repositories for this purpose. As more successful data exfiltrations occur, the data feeding AI will improve, enabling faster and more precise cyber operations. The NCSC urged organizations and individuals to follow their ransomware and cybersecurity hygiene advice to strengthen their defenses and boost their resilience to cyber attacks.
Key takeaways:
- Ransomware attacks are expected to increase in volume and impact over the next two years due to advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, according to a warning from British intelligence.
- The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) stated that AI tools will likely assist with malware and exploit development, making cyber operations more efficient and harder to detect.
- However, these sophisticated uses of AI are expected to be available only to the best-resourced threat actors and are unlikely to be realized before 2025.
- There were 874 ransomware attacks against British organizations in the first three quarters of 2023, a significant increase compared to the 739 incidents recorded throughout the entirety of 2022.