UK warned AI will speed up ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure

The NCSC⬟'s State of the Cyber Nation report assesses that AI-enabled malware is highly likely to be used in ransomware against UK critical national infrastructure within two years, mainly to accelerate exploitation of long-neglected weaknesses. The report says up to 88% of attacks start from phishing, public-facing application exploitation, valid account misuse or external remote services. It cites Russian router exploitation (July 2026) and increased operational technology targeting (August 2026). No CVE identifiers are given. Defenders should prioritise patching and hardening of exposed services, misconfigured VPNs and third-party software, and treat Cyber Essentials as a baseline.

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