Reposted from EMR-ISAC

As machine learning models are “moving AI into its industrial age,” there will be “potentially huge economic impacts for both winners and followers and unintended consequences, from rampant deepfakes and misinformation to the development of AI-generated computer viruses or new chemical weapons,” the U.S. intelligence community warned in its annual threat assessment published Monday.

The annual report notes that China “remains the most persistent cyber threat to U.S. Government, private sector, and critical infrastructure networks” and that Beijing has carried out a years-long effort to infiltrate key critical infrastructure networks around the United States. American spies assess that activity, which is widely tracked as Volt Typhoon, aims to give China the ability to disrupt communications between the United States and China in the event of a military conflict.

Iran may attempt to interfere as well, perhaps building on a 2020 operation that saw an Iran-linked group access voter data and target some voters with phony emails purporting to be from the right-wing group known as the Proud Boys. The group behind that operation has “evolved their activities and developed a new set of techniques, combining cyber and influence capabilities,” that it could use in 2024, according to the report.

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