Alex Stamos says AI is speeding up hacks and straining cybersecurity

In short: A leading security expert says AI is making cyberattacks faster, cheaper, and harder for many companies to stop.

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Alex Stamos, chief security officer at Cognition and a longtime cybersecurity leader, said on The Verge’s Decoder podcast that many organizations are facing constant break-ins, helped by AI.

He described recent incidents where one breach leads to another. In one example discussed on the show, attackers stole API keys (like stolen spare keys that unlock online services) from one company and then used them to get into another. From there, they pushed a malicious plugin (a small add-on that installs into software) that could spread risk to thousands of other companies.

Stamos said AI can now automate much of the “kill chain,” meaning the step by step process attackers use to find a weakness, break in, and do damage. He compared the moment to the 1990s “Wild West” of the early internet, but with one big difference. Today, far more of daily life and business depends on always-online systems.

He also warned that open tools, including a Chinese open-source tool he called ARTEX, can be downloaded and used by attackers. That lowers the skill and cost needed to target large companies.

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Stamos argued that defenses need to get cheaper and more automated too, not just better at finding software bugs. He said more companies may have to “red team” themselves, which means testing their own systems the way an attacker would, to find weaknesses before criminals do.

Source: The Verge AI