Key facts
- AI is expected to accelerate the discovery and exploitation of security vulnerabilities.
Cybersecurity experts are warning of a new era of AI-enabled hacking following the discovery of critical flaws in the PHP programming language. Researchers used AI to identify the vulnerabilities, which may have existed for years and potentially put 70% of internet sites at risk. Attempts to exploit the flaws have already surged into the millions.
AI-powered hacking tools are expected to dramatically increase the speed and scale at which security vulnerabilities are discovered and exploited, potentially overwhelming existing cybersecurity defenses and impacting global internet infrastructure.
Cybersecurity experts are warning of a new era of AI-enabled hacking following the discovery of critical flaws in the PHP programming language. Researchers used AI to identify the vulnerabilities, which may have existed for years and potentially put 70% of internet sites at risk. Attempts to exploit the flaws have already surged into the millions.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, stated that patching all bugs may no longer be feasible, while Anthropic's deputy CISO Jason Clinton predicted a "vulnerability tsunami" in the coming months. Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince described the situation as potentially feeling "catastrophic" due to AI's ability to find and exploit flaws at an unprecedented pace.
The critical bugs were found in PHP, a language used by millions of websites. The US National Security Agency issued an alert recommending immediate patching, noting that malicious actors could use these vulnerabilities to steal data or disrupt services. Wiz researchers called the PHP flaws among the most severe in software history.
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