AI broke the cybersecurity world. What’s next?

In a recent interview with Decoder, Alex Stamos, chief security officer at Cognition and a lecturer at Stanford University's Cyber Policy Center, discussed the impact of AI on cybersecurity. Stamos described the current state of cybersecurity as "essentially overdue" to handle the wave of hacks, breaches, and attacks enabled by AI. He noted that both private and state actors, such as Russia and North Korea, are taking advantage of AI to detect and exploit vulnerabilities.

Stamos explained that the multibillion-dollar cybersecurity industry is facing disruption similar to the early days of the always-online world in the 1990s. This disruption creates numerous opportunities for bad actors to infiltrate systems while others scramble to respond. He described the situation as entering a "dark age" as organizations adapt to the new era of AI-powered cyber threats.

Stamos highlighted the recent series of hacks, breaches, and attacks, including the PHP, Node, and Fireworks incidents. He emphasized that these attacks are interconnected and represent a continuous breach across the tech industry. He questioned the motivations behind these attacks, stating that they are driven by a variety of groups and not just Russia or North Korea.

The expert emphasized that AI has accelerated the kill chain process, enabling adversaries to find vulnerabilities, write exploits, and breach multiple targets rapidly. He referred to this as "inverting" the traditional kill chain, where AI systems can now automatically identify bugs, generate exploits, and breach organizations in real-time.

Stamos mentioned a Chinese open-source tool called ARTEX, which, when combined with powerful AI models like GLM-5.3, can break into a significant number of organizations. This tool was used in the Fireworks hack, leading to a chain reaction of potential breaches affecting around 5,000 companies.