The NCSC was notified of 80 ‘nationally significant’ cyberattacks this year.
AI-enabled attacks are surfacing long-standing cyber hygiene issues in the UK, warned its cybersecurity chief, who compared organisational security in the country to the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Announcing the latest annual report on the country’s state of cybersecurity, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) CEO Richard Horne said that the UK is going through an enormously consequential moment in history, driven by the unprecedented cyber risk posed to its critical systems and enterprises.
Across the globe, cyberattacks have rattled industries and government offices. Hackers, in a second wave of attacks across retail units, targeted grocery stores across Ireland, the UK, Belgium and Sweden earlier this week, leading to food waste and losses ranging in the hundreds of thousands.
Meanwhile, a fresh ransomware attack on a school estate in the UK was reported today (3 November) and last week, suspected North Korean hackers pulled off the biggest bank heist in history after stealing more than $6bn in cryptocurrency assets from Binance.
“In the coming months, we face a real prospect of an unprecedented rise in the number of cyber incidents,” Horne said.
The threat landscape has rapidly evolved in recent years as advanced AI systems provide hackers with the means to identify and exploit existing vulnerabilities at a scale never seen before. A recent Eurobarometer survey found that three in four EU-based employees were faced with potential phishing or hacking attempts in the past six months.
Anthropic and OpenAI, the creators behind many of these advanced AI models, have teamed up with organisations to help secure their systems in what has become a high-stakes race. However, across the board, businesses and government departments still seemingly have a long way to go.
“There is an uncomfortable truth that the immediate cybersecurity risk we face from AI is not new,” Horne said.
And it’s not because AI has invented new ways to stage attacks, he said. “It is because vulnerabilities that have been tolerated for far too long can now be discovered and exploited, at a scale and pace that was once unimaginable,” Horne explained.
“And because far too many of our organisations and supply chains rest on weak technology and operational foundations.
“The Leaning Tower of Pisa gives a useful metaphor…because it was built on flawed foundations.”
Despite the rapidly growing security threat, several Irish businesses have reportedly reduced their cybersecurity spend in what has been described as a “high-risk strategy”.
The NCSC’s report found that AI will very likely continue to be integrated into threat actors’ cyber operations, increasing the speed, scale and efficiency of their attacks. China’s adversarial cyber activity poses the biggest “cyber challenge” facing the country, it noted.
The agency received 1,831 reports of cyberattacks this year, of which 80 were classified as nationally significant, the report said. Meanwhile, it notified 8,500 organisations of suspected cyberattacks.
“The period of post-Cold War stability has ended,” Horne said. “Every day, our military networks are subjected to sustained and persistent, widespread attempts to penetrate our systems.
“Including notable campaigns by Russia that intentionally fall below the threshold of armed conflict as they escalate their attempts at hybrid warfare.
“Despite the pressures of the Middle East conflict, Iran is still carrying out malicious cyber operations globally.”
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