Interpol warns AI is accelerating cyber threats, urges companies to prioritise defences
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Interpol is warning that artificial intelligence is making cyber threats more severe. Bjorn R. Watne, Interpol's Chief Information Security Officer, said AI is escalating existing criminal techniques rather than revolutionising them into new forms, enabling fraudsters to target many victims at once. At the same time, more effective translation and digital identity creation are making it harder to tell genuine communications from scams. Watne told CNBC reporters on the sidelines of the Tech Week Singapore conference on Thursday, 1 October, that AI adds speed and scale to existing techniques. He advised companies to prioritise their defences, starting by identifying the assets most critical to operations, assessing who might want to attack those assets, using threat intelligence to understand the tactics of malicious actors, and then aligning defences accordingly. The measures needed will vary depending on the type of threat. Watne also expressed particular concern about AI assistants, or agentic AI, that are beginning to take action on behalf of users, warning that errors could have consequences up to and including physical harm to humans, especially when AI is deployed in devices such as cars and driverless vehicles.