Autonomous AI worms mark a new era of adaptive cyberattacks
Researchers at the University of Toronto have demonstrated a computer worm that reasons its way across a network, working out a different attack for each machine it lands on, with no humans involved.
Much of the coverage has called this a breakthrough in demonstrating how the AI worm can target any online device, but that capability has been visible on the horizon for anyone watching the criminal underground.
What the paper does is settle the argument about whether it is buildable and, in doing so, reopens three issues most internet security teams would rather not confront directly.
The first of these is cost, and this is the story that matters. Building attacks aimed at specific systems used to be slow and expensive, requiring skilled operators.
That expense is one reason many mid-sized organizations were largely ignored - they were not worth the engineering effort. The Toronto worm removes that constraint...
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