EVERYTHING GETS HACKED: We’re Not Prepared for AI Hackers, Security Expert Warns.

Schneier’s eye-opening talk at the all-virtual RSAC 2021 conference examined the consequences, positive and negative, of artificial intelligence learning to hack all kinds of systems. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic forced him and other RSAC participants to present via video this year, but that comfortable setting didn’t blunt Schneier’s concerns.

“Any good AI system will naturally find hacks,” said Schneier. They find novel solutions because they lack human context, and the consequence is that some of those solutions will break the expectations humans have—hence, a hack.

This is especially true for computers. “We never close off all the avenues for hacking,” he said, positing that once AI systems start looking for hacks, vulnerabilities will be found at a scale humans are simply unprepared to handle.

We’re very close to being a very long way from comparatively simple ransom hacks like Colonial Pipeline.