The United Kingdom should prepare for cyberattacks targeting its critical national infrastructure using artificial intelligence (AI), which could occur within the next two years, the country’s National Cyber Security Centre
(NCSC) warned on Tuesday. The agency said China is likely to possess the greatest capabilities to carry out such operations.
Richard Horne, head of the NCSC, which operates under the intelligence agency GCHQ, said many British organisations and supply chains had spent decades “cutting corners on technology”, leaving them vulnerable to cyber threats.
“In the coming months, we face the real prospect of an unprecedented increase in the number of cyber incidents. It is important to understand that AI has not created fundamentally new methods of attack. Rather, vulnerabilities that have been tolerated for far too long can now be discovered and exploited on a scale that previously seemed unimaginable,” Horne said.
In its annual report, the NCSC said AI-powered ransomware attacks targeting the country’s critical infrastructure were highly likely to emerge by 2028. The report also warned that hostile actors using AI would be able to significantly increase the scale and effectiveness of their operations.
Horne said Russia was making persistent attempts to penetrate British military networks, while Iran was conducting malicious cyber operations worldwide, including against the UK and individuals it considers threats.
“We know that China is highly likely to have both the intent and the greatest capability to use artificial intelligence in operations against our critical national infrastructure and other strategic assets. Its activities represent the most sophisticated and sustained cyber threat facing the UK,” he said.
Moscow, Beijing and Tehran have repeatedly rejected accusations of conducting malicious cyber operations.
The NCSC report and Horne’s remarks come amid a series of cyberattacks targeting supermarket networks across Europe, which have exposed vulnerabilities in their IT systems.
According to Horne, organisations must take urgent action now to strengthen their cybersecurity defences. Otherwise, they could find themselves having to explain why “there is no food on supermarket shelves, the lights go out and businesses go bankrupt.” Photo by UK Government, Wikimedia commons.
