Bosses urged to 'fight fire with fire' on AI cyber attacks

The UK’s ambitious plans to become a global superpower in artificial intelligence will wither on the vine unless cyber security is taken more seriously, with half (48%) of all British organisations vulnerable to cyber attacks and an additional third (39%) at high risk, leaving just 13% whose systems are resilient.

So says a damning report published by Microsoft, which teamed up with researchers from Goldsmiths, University of London to benchmark the state of cyber security across the UK’s private and public sectors.

While the report, “Mission critical: Unlocking the UK AI Opportunity Through Cybersecurity” does acknowledge the UK is a global leader in cyber security and performs strongly against current international indices, it warns that as criminals increasingly adopt AI technology in cyber attacks, organisations would do well to deploy AI themselves to bolster their defences.

Goldsmiths Institute of Management Studies director of innovation Chris Brauer estimates that there could be a £52bn annual dividend in it for the UK economy, cutting the annual cost of cyber attacks from £87bn.

He said: “The UK has phenomenal potential to lead the world in the use of AI – an unprecedented opportunity to supercharge our economy and transform our public services.

“But that future must be built on secure foundations. To become an AI superpower, the UK must maintain its position as a cyber security superpower. With so many organisations shown to be vulnerable to cyber crime, our research surfaces both the urgency of the issue, and useful actions that leaders can take to boost the country’s cyber resilience.”

Microsoft UK security business group director Paul Kelly added: “Cyber criminals, some armed with the resources of a nation state, are tooling up with AI to increase the sophistication and intensity of their attacks. This research outlines 52 billion reasons for organisational leaders to fight fire with fire.

“The same AI technologies can help leaders better secure their organisation and tip the balance back in their favour. AI has the potential to make your business and data more secure, but also, if a cyber attack were to occur, to lessen the impact on your bottom line.”

The report goes on to set out five opportunities for the UK to maintain its existing cyber superpower status:

– Support and facilitate mainstream adoption of AI in cyber, while working to inspire more creative approaches to security challenges;

– Target prioritised and precise investment and encourage organisations to focus on buy-and-build or off-the-shelf configurations;

– Use nationally incentivised skills programmes, on-the-job training, and make better use of partnerships with academia to cultivate more talent;

– Invest in more public-private research and development partnerships and support innovative AI entrepreneurs, at the same time incorporating learnings from cyber incidents into cross-industry alliances for preparedness;

– Do more to support simple and safe adoption of AI-enabled cyber services, working across sectors on outcomes-based guidance that aligns to current and future international standards.

The report follows a warning issued by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, part of GCHQ, that British businesses must be on data security red alert over a fresh wave of malicious cyber attacks, particularly ransomware demands.

The NCSC cited the rise of AI systems that are lowering the entry barrier to less skilled cyber criminals, including hackers-for-hire and hacktivists, with AI already being used in malicious cyber activity.