Artificial intelligence (AI) will pain a \u201cwhole swathe\u201d of the UK economy before ultimately providing a net benefit, the chief technology officer of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has said.<\/p>\n
The greatest under-appreciated AI-driven cyber threat on the horizon is models learning to find weak spots in digital spheres, Ollie Whitehouse added.<\/p>\n
Companies that cannot effectively use AI for cyber defence will \u201cfeel the brunt\u201d of models revealing these vulnerabilities \u2013 and this will be \u201cquite a painful correction\u201d, he said at a cyber security start-up event at the National Theatre, central London, on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the UK\u2019s AI Security Institute (AISI) is focusing on the danger of advance AI creating \u201cchemical and biological threats, cyber capabilities and autonomous systems that cause real widespread harm\u201d, attendees heard.<\/p>\n
The CTO at NCSC, the UK\u2019s cyber security authority, was asked on a panel for the \u201cmost under-appreciated AI-driven cyber threat on the horizon that we\u2019re not preparing for today\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Whitehouse told the event hosted by Harmonic Security: \u201cIt is the one where AI gets very effective at surfacing what our vulnerability truly is, and us simply not having the capacity to be able to triage and respond to that.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment, there is\u2026 this beauty in us not knowing the true extent of that and being able to quantify it \u2013 that is going to rapidly change.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then when we do know the true level of our vulnerability across digital states, across software, we are going to be left with some really hard decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
This threatens \u201cgood corporate governance, future profits and other wellbeing in the UK\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
NCSC staff are \u201cAI optimists\u201d, he told the room, \u201cbut I think the journey between where we are today and that sunny upland is going to be rocky and uneven.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is definitely going to be the risk of the haves who are able to employ AI for effective cyber defence, but there\u2019s going to be a whole swathe of the economy who are unable to, and are going to feel the brunt and the implications of that in quite a painful correction.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we will net out in a far better situation\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ben Dewar-Powell, the recently-appointed chief information security officer (CISO) at AISI, said: \u201cAt the institute we\u2019re focused on the most serious emerging risks from advanced AI, so things like chemical and biological threats, cyber capabilities and autonomous systems that cause real widespread harm.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year the institute found that models can produce expert-level knowledge about biology and chemistry, with some providing answers equivalent to PhD-level experts. These could be used for positive or harmful purposes, it said.<\/p>\n
AISI, which is part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, prioritises what \u201ccould cause severe damage\u201d, what is \u201cuniquely enabled by cutting-edge AI capabilities\u201d, and \u201cwhere Government-backed research actually adds value that others can\u2019t provide\u201d, Mr Dewar-Powell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy take on the cyber piece is it\u2019s really the automation of the entire kill chain, so not just bits and pieces at every stage running at pace.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo campaigns that have taken weeks can take hours running parallel, and completely change the economics.\u201d<\/p>\n
A cyber kill chain outlines the stages an attacker must successfully complete to achieve an operation goal.<\/p>\n
The comments came after Alastair Paterson, chief executive and co-founder of Harmonic Security, said the UK \u201ccannot afford to rely on other nations for the technologies that protect our infrastructure\u2026 our technology, our economy, really our way of life, but we are right now\u201d.<\/p>\n
A raft of businesses have been hit by major cyber attacks in recent months, including British car maker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), high street retailer Marks and Spencer and nursery group Kido Schools.<\/p>\n
Mr Paterson referenced JLR and said the attack cost taxpayers \u00a31.5 billion in a loan guarantee.<\/p>\n
\u201cPretty much every week or every month we see the headlines here that just underline how important this sector is\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
However Britain is being \u201coutpaced and out-competed all the time\u201d by other nations, notably Israel, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael has this incredible ecosystem that really turns their (cyber start-up) founders into serial winners, right? They go back, they help each other out again and again. And they built an incredible technology sector there, specifically around cyber security.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cAt the same time, the geopolitical environment around the UK is shifting pretty fast right now\u2026 you\u2019ve got, obviously, the rise of China; you\u2019ve got a really belligerent Russia that is expansionist right now (and) have their shadow war going on; and then unfortunately the US is more inward-looking than it\u2019s been before as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Artificial intelligence (AI) will pain a \u201cwhole swathe\u201d of the UK economy before ultimately providing a net benefit,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[160783,160785,1942,160784,748,160786,160787,150366,13312,393,4884,62152,19735,1144,160782,712,16,10051,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-486093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-ai-security-institute","10":"tag-aisi","11":"tag-artificial-intelligence","12":"tag-biological-threats","13":"tag-britain","14":"tag-chief-technology-officer","15":"tag-cyber-defence","16":"tag-cyber-threat","17":"tag-cyber-security","18":"tag-england","19":"tag-great-britain","20":"tag-national-cyber-security-centre","21":"tag-national-theatre","22":"tag-northern-ireland","23":"tag-ollie-whitehouse","24":"tag-scotland","25":"tag-uk","26":"tag-uk-economy","27":"tag-united-kingdom","28":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115345167908661493","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}