Artificial intelligence is souping up the speed and capabilities of malicious hackers, a top FBI official said Tuesday. And the speed of vulnerability discoveries is forcing organizations to patch more frequently, said another top FBI official.
The officials made their remarks one day before the release of a new FBI cyber strategy Wednesday, which touches on AI, relief and justice for victims and other bureau priorities.
Speaking to both CyberScoop and at the Billington CyberSecurity Summit, Jason Bilnoski, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s cyber division, said AI is “taking actors to the next level.”
“You’re going to have additional offensive actions coming at your environment, targeting the network at speed and capability,” he said. And he expects it to keep getting worse, with AI-enabled attacks already having a measurable impact, as demonstrated by the numbers in a new section of the annual FBI report on digital crimes.
“The wave is coming. I don’t think we’ve hit the crest yet,” Bilnoski said. “We see an exponential increase in the use of AI, whether it’s nation-state or criminal.”