Australia's cyber security agency warned of an "unprecedented" threat from artificial intelligence in its latest annual report. The Australian Signals Directorate used AI tools to compile its own annual "cyber threat" report.
More than 4,400 warnings about potentially malicious activity were issued by the Australian Signals Directorate over the past year. This figure represents an 80% increase in warnings compared to the previous 12 months.
The report stated, "AI has been the defining force in the cyber threat landscape over the past year, allowing malicious actors to find vulnerabilities faster and exploit them at unprecedented scale, speed and sophistication." State-sponsored cyber actors targeted Australian organisations to gain access to sensitive or non-public information.
Hackers linked to China, Russia and North Korea targeted Australia or its allies. Cyber activity targeted critical infrastructure entities, private businesses and individuals.
Richard Marles, Defence Minister, said, "AI is here and it's real. People need to engage." Marles added, "There's no turning the clock back in relation to that."
A vulnerability in a programming language was found using a powerful model from OpenAI.
