'Five Eyes' intelligence alliance warns that new AI models pose urgent cyber risk

By Raphael Satter

 

WASHINGTON,(Reuters) - Cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology is poised to supercharge offensive hacking capabilities and urgent action is needed to face up to the threat, U.S., British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand officials said on  Monday.

 

The intelligence alliance commonly known as the "Five Eyes" said in a three-page statement that, "Frontier AI models are anticipated to exceed current industry expectations, fundamentally transforming both offensive and defensive cyber capabilities. The timeline is not years, it is months."

 

The statement was light on details and mostly restated core cybersecurity advice, such as swiftly patching faulty software and not putting systems online unless necessary. The officials also urged defenders to use AI "to strengthen defence," for example by identifying weaknesses sooner or responding more quickly to incidents.

 

The warning was another indication of officials’ increasing concerns over models such as Anthropic’s "Mythos" or OpenAI’s "GPT-5.5-Cyber," which are said to allow users to quickly execute complex — and potentially devastating — hacks.

 

Earlier this month, Anthropic was forced to disable a version of Mythos after the U.S. government ordered it to suspend access to the models for foreign nationals over alleged national security ‌concerns. Around the same time, the U.S. cyber defense agency CISA — which was among those cosigning Monday’s statement — reduced the deadlines imposed on government officials to deal with serious digital vulnerabilities in their networks to three days, citing AI threats.

 

(Reporting by Raphael Satter in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)