The News<\/p>\n
This week marked the start of a new era in cyber risk with threats of artificial intelligence hacking \u2014 and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer fears that Washington isn\u2019t ready.<\/p>\n
Anthropic\u2019s new frontier model, Mythos, cracked<\/a> MacOS during testing, according to The Wall Street Journal. On Monday, Google\u2019s Threat Intelligence Group said it thwarted the first known<\/a> case of cybercriminals using AI to discover and target a previously unknown software vulnerability that could have allowed hackers to bypass two-factor authentication.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a discussion now that says, \u2018it\u2019s coming,\u2019 right?\u201d Google Threat Intelligence Group Chief Analyst John Hultquist said in an interview with Semafor. \u201cThat\u2019s a misinterpretation of facts. The new era is here.\u201d<\/p>\n Google engineers said they detected hackers targeting a \u201czero-day vulnerability,\u201d a type of security weakness unknown to the software\u2019s developers, which therefore leaves defenders \u201czero days\u201d to deploy patches.<\/p>\n Schumer wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin earlier this month warning that new AI systems could dramatically accelerate cyberattacks against critical infrastructure, while criticizing the agency for its response thus far. He said he wants DHS to provide Congress with a national coordination plan for responding to \u201cfrontier AI-enabled hacking\u201d by the start of July.<\/p>\n Know More<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a race between cybersecurity defenders and AI-enabled hacking \u2014 and there\u2019s no time to waste,\u201d Schumer wrote, citing risks<\/a> to hospitals, energy grids, water infrastructure, schools, elections systems, and telecommunications.<\/p>\n Schumer also urged Mullin to encourage President Donald Trump to nominate a director for DHS\u2019 Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which has gone without a permanent leader since the start of the second Trump administration.<\/p>\n Trump has hamstrung the agency in his second term: Five months in, one-third<\/a> of CISA\u2019s workforce had left the agency through layoffs, buyouts, or resignations. The Trump administration\u2019s proposed 2026 budget sought to cut CISA\u2019s funding<\/a> by nearly $500 million, or around 17%, and its proposed 2027 request would cut the agency\u2019s funding by a further $707 million. Presidential budgets are aspirational and rarely become law, however.<\/p>\n Notable<\/p>\n