The AI that cracked Apple Silicon is only the beginning

AI doesn’t care whose side you’re on

AI boosts productivity for everyone, including attackers. In this case, the technology augmented the human security research team’s efforts, enabling them to identify a weakness in Apple’s security system. This won’t be the first time AI gets used to identify hard-to-find bugs and certainly won’t be the last.

This should be a real concern to any platform provider, as it means the most well-resourced attackers will be leaning deep into AI to help them find vulnerabilities. And as AI improves, the capacity it provides will inevitably become more dangerous.

That’s even before you consider that some attackers work for the kind of state and state-adjacent entities that can afford aircraft carriers. 

When nation-states come knocking

Access to such extensive resources means future AI-augmented attacks will have at their disposal the most powerful computational AI money can buy, which probably boils down to quantum computers.

About Author

AndyC

Andy Curtis is an award-winning security consultant, researcher and public speaker. He has been working in the computer security industry since the early 1990s, having been employed by state and federal government, leading healthcare and banking providers across three continents. He has given talks about computer security for some of the world’s largest companies, worked with law enforcement agencies on investigations into hacking groups, and is a regular voice on TV and radio explaining IT security threats.

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