Whether or not Anthropic’s Claude Mythos frontier AI model is going to be a game changer for software vulnerability discovery, or whether it is a load of hot air, remains to be seen, but the broader subject is of gathering concern to the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which has warned that a tsunami of costly and time-consuming technical issues is bearing down on all organisations.
Writing on the NCSC’s website, the agency’s chief technology officer Ollie Whitehouse said the industry has prioritised short-term gains over building resilient products and services, and that with the advent of AI-driven vulnerability discovery, their chickens are about to come home to roost.
“Artificial intelligence, when used by sufficiently-skilled and knowledgeable individuals, is showing the ability to exploit this technical debt at scale and at pace across the technology ecosystem,” wrote Whitehouse.
“As a result, the NCSC expect[s] there will be a ‘forced correction’ to address this technical debt across all types of software, including open source, commercial, proprietary and software as a service.”
Added Whitehouse: “This is why we are encouraging all organisations to prepare now for when a ‘patch wave’ arrives; a rush of software updates that will need to be applied across the technology stack to address the disclosure of new vulnerabilities.”
Considering how chief information security officers (CISOs), security leaders and teams should respond to this sea-change, the NCSC has publicised guidance centred on three core pillars.
