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The war between businesses and hackers enters a perilous new era
AI agents present novel dangers.
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Cybersecurity firms, as well as businesses at large, are scrambling to prepare for a wave of AI-powered cybercrime.
PHOTO: AFP
The Economist
Cybersecurity in the age of artificial intelligence in some ways resembles modern warfare. It is asymmetric: small bands of attackers armed with the latest technology can penetrate the most powerful defences. And the weaponry is increasingly autonomous. As Mr Nikesh Arora, boss of Palo Alto Networks (PAN), a big cybersecurity firm, puts it, “AI has to fight AI”. The good guys do not always win.
In recent weeks, Anthropic and OpenAI have unveiled AI models – Mythos Preview and 5.5-Cyber respectively – so capable of penetrating weak spots in cyberdefences that the AI labs have released them only to trusted firms. But that is no guarantee of safety. New models are emerging all the time and hackers already use earlier varieties.
