NCSC Says AI Will Accelerate Cyberattacks and Widen Security Gaps

UK National Cyber Security Centre said in its 2026 annual review that AI will increase the speed, scale and efficiency of cyber operations. The agency expects AI to strengthen existing attack methods rather than create fundamentally new ones.

AI models can assist with reconnaissance, social engineering, vulnerability discovery and exploit coding. Skilled operators are likely to gain the largest efficiency improvements, while human oversight remains necessary to direct, check and adapt model outputs.

The NCSC expects defenders to face pressure to patch systems faster as AI finds vulnerabilities and misconfigurations in large codebases. Organizations with mature security programs, sufficient resources and strong AI governance may improve detection and defensive automation, while organizations using legacy technology may struggle to match the speed of AI assisted attacks.

The agency also warned that shadow AI can reduce visibility when employees transfer sensitive data to personal devices or external tools. It expects criminals to use open source AI tools to automate ransomware, social engineering and vulnerability exploitation, reducing costs and increasing attack volumes.