Britain on notice: AI-powered ransomware attacks to arrive by 2028

The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) says AI-powered malware is "highly likely" to be a part of a future ransomware attack on Britain's critical national infrastructure between now and 2028.

The warning accompanies its annual review and a separate assessment exploring how AI could change cyber threats over the next two years.

The cyber arm of signals intelligence agency GCHQ did not provide much detail about what form this AI malware may take. However, it alluded to open source AI security tools that were initially intended to assist security researchers being repurposed for nefarious activity.

Attackers are already repurposing such tools. For example, researchers are increasingly seeing widespread abuse of ARTEX, an open source, Chinese-made AI red-teaming platform, in attacks on UK registrar 123 Reg, Microsoft 365, and others since its launch in July.

In its pessimistic scenario for 2028, the NCSC envisages "a significant increase in the frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks worldwide," with wider adoption of AI …