Britain's critical national infrastructure should be braced for a ransomware attack using AI-powered malware by 2028, the National Cyber Security Centre says in its annual report, published on Tuesday, according to UK coverage of the report. The NCSC warns that AI-powered malware is "highly likely" to be used against Britain's power, transport and food infrastructure by 2028, as attackers increasingly use artificial intelligence to scale up intrusions and evade defences. The warning lands as Europe reels from a wave of cyberattacks on supermarket refrigeration systems that disrupted stores in at least seven countries on Monday, forcing retailers to discard spoiled food. The NCSC said it was cooperating with international partners and industry representatives to "fully understand details" of that incident. The annual report is the NCSC's flagship assessment of the cyber threats facing the United Kingdom, covering ransomware, state-linked activity and the security of critical services. Officials say the convergence of AI tools with criminal ransomware operations is shortening the time between an initial intrusion and a disruptive attack. The centre's advice to operators of essential services is to treat AI-enabled attacks as a near-term planning assumption rather than a distant risk, and to harden internet-connected industrial systems — the same class of equipment targeted in the supermarket refrigeration attacks.
Tags
News