Frontier AI Model Simulated Attacks

I read an interesting blog post from NCSC this week talking about recent research with frontier AI models in simulated enterprise attacks. The progress is impressive, eighteen months ago, the best available models barely made a dent. But now, the most recent models responding impressively and finding attack approaches the scenario designers hadn’t thought of. And the cost of running a full attempt was roughly £65! A sophisticated, AI-assisted attack delivered with low cost and without specialist expertise.

The instinct for many is to treat AI-enabled threats as a future problem. A bridge to cross once the technology matures a bit more, once guidance is clearer, once there’s a budget for it, dare I say, something to be looked at tomorrow…

The suggestion here is that the horse has bolted and tomorrow is here!

What really struck me, is that the advice and approach hasn’t changed. AI won’t compensate for weak security foundations, it will instead amplify both strengths and weaknesses. The controls that matter are the same ones that have always mattered. Accurate asset inventories, robust access controls, secure configuration, comprehensive logging.

The best placed to defend against AI-enabled attacks are not necessarily the ones with the most sophisticated tools. They’re the ones that have got the basics right and enhance that foundation with carefully deployed AI-enhanced defences. If your access controls are inconsistent, your asset inventory is out of date, or your logging is patchy, an AI-enabled attacker isn’t tomorrow’s problem!

The NCSC blog is worth reading in full.

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/blogs/why-cyber-defenders-need-to-be-ready-for-frontier-ai