Cybersecurity Chief To Warn Of 'Vast And Unpredictable' Impact Of AI

Cybersecurity chief to warn of 'vast and unpredictable' impact of AI.

The director of the National Cyber Security Centre has plans to speak to the Oireachtas Committee about the implications of AI. He has stated that AI is "inherently unpredictable."

Richard Browne is set to address today's committee hearing, alongside him will be representative from the Defense Forces and the Department of Defence.

According to RTE, Browne plans to tell committee members that threat actors are heavy users of AI tools and that advances in the technology are allowing for "greater automation of attack processes".

"It means that we’re in a race, whether we chose to accept it or not. Mr Browne is expected to say. The technical frontier is leaping ahead every week, and the role of managing cyber related risks to society is becoming far more dynamic than we might like," his opening statement continues.

He also plans to explain that AI is a revloution and a generational change that will affect every digital technology that has come before it.

Director of Emergency Operations and Infrastructure Oversight in the Department of Defence, Jason Kearney, has been stated that he will tell the committee that the rise of AI has created new oppurtunities while also "introducing challenges that are broader and more complex than anything we have previously encountered".

Committee chair Malcolm Byrne said that the impact of AI on defence, security and cybersecurity is one of the "most critical areas for the committee".

"We know about the risks of cyberattacks emanating from other states, notably Russia, China, and Iran, and by non-state actors already on Ireland, if these are AI enabled, there are even greater challenges, particularly given the pace at which the technology is developing" Byrne continued.

Back in December, The NCSC’s National Cyber Risk Assessment urged the Government to "strengthen and expand the monitoring and intelligence around cyber and move to a more proactive cyber defence posture”. The director of the NCSC will tell the committee today that "cyber security industry is being revolutionised by a rapidly developing swathe of agentic AI solutions," and warns that this is not entirely a good news story. They said: “Threat actors are also heavy users of AI tools – across our familiar spectrum of hacktivist, criminal and state actor.”

In a brief made to politicians, Browne stated that hackers are now using AI to “increase the scale of their operations" and lowering the cost of action. "This, in turn, has effectively democratised access by collapsing the technical and linguistic barriers and lowering the barriers to entry," he continued.

Browne warns that AI could be used for automation attacks, stating that this tactic has already been appearing "in the wild, and in the hands of state actors."