UK cyber chief: AI-powered attacks on critical infrastructure within two years
6 min read · By Aston Kennedy
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Britain's critical national infrastructure should expect a ransomware attack involving AI-powered malware by 2028. That is the warning in the State of the Cyber Nation report, published on Tuesday 3 November by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), part of GCHQ.
The report says that within two years, AI adoption by hostile actors is "highly likely" to increase the scale and efficiency of their operations, including ransomware, social engineering and the exploitation of vulnerabilities.
'Tech on the cheap' is over
Launching the report, NCSC chief executive Dr Richard Horne was set to say that AI is not inventing new ways to attack. It is finding the old weaknesses. "Vulnerabilities that have been tolerated for far too long can now be discovered and exploited at a scale that was once unimaginable," he said. "For decades, we have collectively got away with doing tech on the cheap."
He called it "a moment of choice". Leaders who do not invest, he warned, will have to explain themselves to investors, staff and customers "when food isn't on shelves, lights aren't on, businesses have gone under."
What the NCSC wants organisations to do
- Invest properly in technology rather than running it on a shoestring.
- Take systems off the internet when they do not need to be connected.
- Treat Cyber Essentials as the starting point, not the finish line, and build resilience to match size, complexity and risk.
The government's money
The Chancellor announced £60 million for the first phase of a national Cyber Shield, £70 million for a new National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability (NERV) Centre, and an AI Cyber Security Centre of Excellence in Manchester, run by the NCSC. The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill and a forthcoming National Cyber Action Plan sit alongside them. Security Minister Dan Jarvis said: "We're using the power of AI to help stay ahead of those who seek to do us harm."
The defender's side of AI
The NCSC is clear that AI also helps the defenders. The AI Security centre at ArtificialIntelligence.com.ai covers the defensive side, and Ask AI Artificial Intelligence and AI chat tools can explain an alert to a manager who is not a specialist. Wider coverage of Artificial Intelligence runs across AI at a-i.llc, Artificial Intelligence (AI) at aiai.llc, askaillm.com, aifirstllm.com, ArtificialIntelligence.llc, ArtificialIntelligence.ai.in and ArtificialIntelligence.kred, all part of the Domain Investors portfolio.
Source: NCSC, State of the Cyber Nation report and launch speech, 3 November 2026.
