{"id":6043,"date":"2025-05-18T13:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T05:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/ai-enabled-cyber-attacks-exacerbated-by-digital-divide-in-uk\/"},"modified":"2025-05-18T13:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T05:49:07","slug":"ai-enabled-cyber-attacks-exacerbated-by-digital-divide-in-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/ai-enabled-cyber-attacks-exacerbated-by-digital-divide-in-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"AI-enabled cyber attacks exacerbated by digital divide in UK"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/exffghaMKTxxx2KirxnmP5.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>A new digital divide is threatening UK businesses, with those that fail to keep up with AI-powered cyber crime at risk of being targeted by would-be hackers.<\/p>\n<p>In a newly-released report, dubbed the <em>Impact of AI on cyber threat from now to 2027<\/em>, the UK\u2019s <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/security\/what-is-the-national-cyber-security-centre-ncsc-and-what-does-it-do\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/security\/what-is-the-national-cyber-security-centre-ncsc-and-what-does-it-do\">National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)<\/a> warned threat actors are \u201calmost certainly\u201d using AI to support existing tactics.<\/p>\n<aside data-block-type=\"embed\" data-render-type=\"fte\" data-skip=\"dealsy\" data-widget-type=\"seasonal\" class=\"hawk-base\"\/>\n<p>The use of <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/technology\/artificial-intelligence\/ai-tools-critical-thinking-reliance\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/technology\/artificial-intelligence\/ai-tools-critical-thinking-reliance\">AI tools<\/a> by hackers spans a number of key areas, the agency warned, including vulnerability research, victim reconnaissance, the development of <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/malware\/28076\/what-is-malware\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/malware\/28076\/what-is-malware\">malware<\/a>, and the use of AI to ramp up <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/security\/phishing\/why-social-engineering-is-such-a-problem-and-how-your-business-can-protect-itself\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/security\/phishing\/why-social-engineering-is-such-a-problem-and-how-your-business-can-protect-itself\">social engineering<\/a> techniques.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo 2027, this will highly likely increase the volume and impact of cyber intrusions through evolution and enhancement of existing TTPs, rather than creating novel threat vectors,\u201d the NCSC stated.<\/p>\n<p>It added that while only \u201chighly capable state actors\u201d will have the resources to build their own offensive AI models, the remaining groups \u2013 which make up the majority of threat actors \u2013 will make use of off-the-shelf AI models to \u201cuplift their capability\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to protecting against these threats, not all companies are on a level footing. The NCSC warned that \u201cover the next two years, a growing divide will emerge between organizations that can keep pace with AI-enabled threats and those that fall behind\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The agency didn\u2019t expand on which businesses are most likely to be affected by the adoption of AI tools by threat actors, but said \u201ca large proportion\u201d would be more vulnerable.<\/p>\n<div id=\"slice-container-newsletterForm-articleInbodyContent-ctw554HLCqqnEERcvGwu45\" class=\"slice-container newsletter-inbodyContent-slice newsletterForm-articleInbodyContent-ctw554HLCqqnEERcvGwu45 slice-container-newsletterForm\">\n<div data-hydrate=\"true\" class=\"newsletter-form__wrapper newsletter-form__wrapper--inbodyContent\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-form__container\">\n<section class=\"newsletter-form__top-bar\"\/>\n<section class=\"newsletter-form__main-section\">\n<p class=\"newsletter-form__strapline\">Sign up today and you will receive a free copy of our Future Focus 2025 report &#8211; the leading guidance on AI, cybersecurity and other IT challenges as per 700+ senior executives<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2 id=\"ai-powered-attackers-aren-t-the-only-risk-3\">AI-powered attackers aren\u2019t the only risk<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s not just malicious actors using AI that presents a risk, however. When businesses implement AI systems they increase the available attack surface, which is something organizations need to be aware of.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/strategy\/28181\/what-is-ai\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.itpro.com\/strategy\/28181\/what-is-ai\">AI <\/a>technology is increasingly connected to company systems, data, and operational technology for tasks [and] threat actors will almost certainly exploit this additional threat vector,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTechniques such as direct prompt injection, software vulnerabilities, indirect prompt injection and supply chain attack are already capable of enabling exploitation of AI systems to facilitate access to wider systems.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, organizations using these systems need to ensure they keep as on top of their cybersecurity strategies here as they would anywhere else in the business.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"article-body__section\" id=\"section-more-from-itpro\"><span>MORE FROM ITPRO<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new digital divide is threatening UK businesses, with those that fail to keep up with AI-powered cyber crime at risk of being targeted by would-be hackers. In a newly-released report, dubbed the Impact of AI on cyber threat from now to 2027, the UK\u2019s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warned threat actors are \u201calmost [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blog"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}