Defence & security
Military, defence contractors and security vendors: state-backed AI operations, espionage and attacks on the defenders' own AI tools.
Last 12 months · since Nov 4, 2025
Official warnings and preparedness
Public warnings, exercises, advisories and new rules from heads of government, ministers, regulators, central banks, intergovernmental bodies and national cyber agencies. Each entry links to its source.
- WarningUK government (British side), as reported · Head of governmentUnited Kingdom
UK says China 'very likely' to use AI in future hacking; Beijing rejects claim
The British side said China is "very likely" to use AI in future hacking operations. China's foreign ministry rejected the claim. The UK issuing body is not named in the text.
Source: 京报网
- WarningBritain (UK authorities), as reported by Antikor · Security agencyUnited Kingdom
UK warns China and Russia will step up AI-enhanced cyberattacks
Per Antikor, British authorities warned that China and Russia will strengthen their cyberattacks using AI. The headline gives no further detail, and the forecast is attributed to the UK.
Source: АНТИКОР
- WarningPope Leo XIV · Head of governmentVA
Pope Leo XIV calls for human control over AI-driven weapons
Pope Leo XIV, head of state of Vatican City, called for action against AI 'killer robots' and said humans must stay in control.
Source: www.techtimes.co.uk
- AdvisoryFBI and CISA · Security agencyUnited States
FBI and CISA warn election officials of AI-assisted phishing and deepfakes
A joint PSA said cyber actors targeting election and campaign officials use AI to write natural-sounding phishing emails and create deepfake video and audio, and advised checking content credentials or watermarks.
Source: FBI IC3
- ExerciseCyber Security Agency of Singapore · Security agencySingapore
Singapore CSA holds tabletop exercise on agentic AI security and control
At Singapore International Cyber Week, CSA and Google ran a scenario exercise with policymakers and critical infrastructure leaders on rogue or compromised AI agents, recommending incident plans, verifiable agent identities and layered oversight.
Source: Cyber Security Agency of Singapore
- WarningUN Security Council · IntergovernmentalINT
UN Security Council holds high-level briefing on AI and international security
At a France-chaired briefing, the co-chair of the UN scientific panel on AI warned of agents escaping containment and catastrophic misuse; AI company heads discussed loss of control, misuse and an autonomous agent cyberattack.
Source: United Nations
- WarningENISA · IntergovernmentalEU
ENISA Threat Landscape 2026 reports growing malicious use of AI by threat groups
ENISA said threat groups increasingly use AI and also target AI systems, that synthetic audio, video and text are part of influence operators' daily arsenal, and that AI integration extends the attack surface.
Source: ENISA
- WarningChina's spy chief (state security) · Security agencyChina
China's spy chief warns of AI risks
China's spy chief warned of AI risks, as US tech leaders urged brakes on AI development, according to the Bloomberg headline. No further detail was provided.
Source: Bloomberg.com
- WarningINTERPOL · IntergovernmentalINT
INTERPOL report finds AI involved in 55% of reported cybercrime in Africa
INTERPOL's African Cyberthreat Assessment 2026 said AI is involved in 55% of reported cybercrimes, losses more than doubled to USD 484 million since 2024, and deepfakes and synthetic identities fuel sextortion and fraud.
Source: INTERPOL
- WarningFive Eyes cyber agencies (NCSC, CISA, NSA, ASD ACSC, CCCS, NCSC NZ) · Security agencyUnited Kingdom
Five Eyes cyber agencies warn leaders that frontier AI is reshaping cyber risk within months
Heads of six agencies said frontier AI speeds and scales attacks, that 'the timeline is not years, it is months', and urged faster patching, legacy remediation, tighter identity controls and rehearsed incident response.
Source: National Cyber Security Centre
- AdvisoryCISA and Australian Signals Directorate's ACSC with Five Eyes partners · Security agencyUnited States
CISA and partners publish guide on careful adoption of agentic AI services
The joint guide lists agentic AI risks such as wider attack surface, privilege creep, behaviour drifting from goals and poor audit trails, and advises against broad access to sensitive data or critical systems and starting with low-risk uses.
Source: CISA
- WarningEuropol · IntergovernmentalEU
Europol IOCTA 2026 says AI, encryption and proxies are expanding cybercrime
Europol's Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment said generative AI makes fraud more convincing, ransomware groups are adopting AI tools, and it expects cybercrime to become more automated with minimal human involvement.
Source: eucrim
- WarningINTERPOL · IntergovernmentalINT
INTERPOL fraud assessment warns AI is industrialising global financial fraud
INTERPOL's Global Financial Fraud Threat Assessment said AI-enhanced fraud is 4.5 times more profitable than traditional methods and that agentic AI tools can run entire fraud campaigns, from scouting to extortion.
Source: INTERPOL
- WarningANSSI / CERT-FR · Security agencyFrance
ANSSI publishes threat summary on generative AI in cyberattacks
CERT-FR said attackers use generative AI across the attack chain, flagged poisoning, compromised open-source models and agent (MCP) flaws as risks, and said it knew of no AI-conducted attack on French targets yet.
Source: Le Monde Informatique
- AdvisoryCISA, NSA and Australian Signals Directorate's ACSC with international partners · Security agencyUnited States
Joint guidance sets principles for securely integrating AI into operational technology
The agencies issued 'Principles for the Secure Integration of AI in Operational Technology' for critical infrastructure operators, advising AI use only where benefits outweigh risks, strong governance and testing, human oversight of critical decisions and fail-safes.
Source: Intelligence Community News
- WarningUS House Committee on Homeland Security · LegislatureUnited States
House Homeland Security Committee calls AI company heads to testify on AI-orchestrated espionage campaign
Committee and subcommittee chairs asked Anthropic's CEO to testify on 17 December about a likely Chinese state-sponsored campaign that used Claude to automate attacks on about 30 organisations, calling it a significant inflection point. Google Cloud was also invited.
Source: CyberScoop
Verified incidents
Older than 12 months (archive): 5
How the sector gets attacked
The most frequent attack types in this sector's case files over the last 12 months, and the AI products named in them.
AI products named
Latest stories on the wire
- Pope Leo XIV calls for action against AI 'killer robots' and says humans must stay in control. www.techtimes.co.uk
- Microsoft reportedly says eight North Korean hacker groups use AI to attack faster. Infobae
- Report on a Pentagon contractor's Claude agent with admin rights putting military data at risk, already tracked. РБК-Україна
- Microsoft says North Korea has built AI into its hacking units' operations. Cryptonews.net