Intelligence agencies warn AI models could launch crippling cyberattacks in months

Technology Intelligence agencies warn AI models could launch crippling cyberattacks in months Comments: by Miranda Nazzaro - 06/23/26 1:37 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Miranda Nazzaro - 06/23/26 1:37 PM ET Comments: Link copied

NOW PLAYING

A group of intelligence agencies from across the world, including the U.S., warned on Monday that artificial intelligence is “rapidly transforming” the cybersecurity risks, urging global leaders to “act swiftly” to stay ahead of malicious actors.

The Five Eyes group, including the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, said in a joint statement that AI’s impacts on defensive and offensive cyber threats is not happening in years, but months.

“While Al will help us improve cyber defence over time, it also accelerates the speed, scale, and sophistication of cyber threats,” the countries wrote, adding “AI is not a future consideration — it is already here.”

AI firms have long warned of how the technology could empower bad actors to hack faster, cheaper and at a broader scale, but concerns ramped up this year amid these firms’ new cybersecurity models like Anthropic’s Mythos model.

Anthropic held back the full release of the Mythos model earlier this year, saying it was too dangerous for public use. The firm maintains Mythos is able to spot decades-old vulnerabilities, making it easier for governments, software and infrastructure to patch things up, but also easier for bad actors.

“[AI] lowers barriers for malicious actors and increases the speed and complexity of attacks, shrinking the window between vulnerability discovery and exploitation ever more quickly” the Five Eyes grouping said. “At the same time, AI offers powerful tools to strengthen defence.”

The warning is directed at small and medium businesses, large organizations and infrastructure, and governments, all of which they suggest are at risk to these threats.

They urged leaders to accelerate their patching processes, address unsupported legacy systems and “prepare for incidents before they happen. Leaders should implement secure-by-design and secure-by-default as standard practice, meaning security is implemented at the creation of any software or system.

Washington has spent the last few months debating how the White House should handle the cybersecurity risks of newer AI models, as the administration tries to balance AI safety concerns with its longtime commitment to light-touch regulation.

Trump signed an order earlier this month laying out a voluntary testing process in which AI labs can provide the government with their models up to 30 days ahead of release to test for certain risks. While the administration emphasized testing was not mandatory, some predicted at the time these assurances would not be enough.

Just weeks later, the administration issued a directive prompting Anthropic to pull newest Fable and Mythos models, sparking intense backlash from the AI policy community.

Add as preferred source on Google Tags Anthropic Artificial Intelligence Cyber defense Cybersecurity risks The Five Eyes group

Comments: Link copied