Britain: Russia may carry out cyber attacks with AI

2024-11-26 20:30:33, Kosova & Bota CNA

The UK government has warned of the risk of cyber-attacks with the help of Artificial Intelligence. During a NATO Cyber ??Defense conference, Britain announced that it is setting up a new laboratory to counter such attacks from hostile countries, including Russia. However, some experts disagree, saying that there are many loopholes that hackers can exploit through proven methods. They say warnings of AI-assisted attacks may be exaggerated.

The world can face more severe cyber attacks through Artificial Intelligence.

This warning was made by British Minister Pat McFadden, during a speech at the NATO Cyber ??Defense Conference in London.

The British government singled out Russia as a possible source of these attacks. London is creating a laboratory to deal with what Minister McFadden called this "new arms race with the help of Artificial Intelligence".

In 2022, Ukrainian government websites faced cyberattacks that security services blamed on Russia.

However, some experts are not convinced that the UK will soon face a wave of cyber attacks powered by Artificial Intelligence.

“We need to be careful when we talk about Artificial Intelligence as if it were a major change in the fundamental nature of cyber operations. On the contrary, I think we are still facing the same problems we had ten years ago. We are still struggling to deal with the same problems," says James Sullivan of the Royal United Services Institute.

The British government says Artificial Intelligence can "amplify existing cyber threats", but also says it presents opportunities to defend against them.

Expert James Sullivan agrees.

“Artificial Intelligence can analyze user behavior and even incident response. I think this is important. It can automate incident response processes because we're never going to be able to protect against these incidents all the time," he says.

The UK government is asking NATO to adapt to this new threat, as it has done throughout its seven-decade history.

But some experts say that the threat of cyber attacks that do not use Artificial Intelligence is still "very big".

“I hear all the time about scams being done using Artificial Intelligence. Then we realize that scams aren't done like that at all. Billions of dollars are profited illegally without using Artificial Intelligence at all," says Rob Pritchard, cyber security expert.

Expert Pritchard adds that Artificial Intelligence can only replace what humans can do and therefore, has not yet changed the situation around cyber security.

"I don't see anything particularly important. At the moment, there is no possibility to give an order and have Artificial Intelligence carry out cyber attacks", he says, adding that Britain is currently facing difficulties in dealing with cyber attacks that are carried out without the help of Artificial Intelligence./ VOA