News Analysis
Cybersecurity experts have long warned that artificial intelligence could make malware more dangerous, and a recent proof-of-concept developed by University of Toronto researchers offers a glimpse of what that danger might look like.
The researchers built and tested an AI-powered computer worm in a controlled environment to better understand how future cybercriminals could exploit advances in artificial intelligence and how their targets might prepare for those risks.
The experiment showed how an AI-powered worm could move across a network, exploit known vulnerabilities, coordinate activity among multiple copies of itself, and adapt its behaviour as conditions changed.
More important than any single capability displayed by the worm is what the research suggests about the future of cybersecurity. The experiment raises questions about how effective today’s cybersecurity tools would be against malware that can adapt and make decisions without direct human guidance….