The AI agents are not the future: they are here. While chatbots such as chatgpt or gemini continue to gain ground in tasks that range from daily doubts to help you in programming tasks, large technological have begun to take determined steps towards a new generation of much more promising systems. They are able to execute tasks, make decisions and adapt to the environment. They not only respond: they act. And that change is presented as a very powerful advance.
Openai is developing Operator, an assistant who can navigate pages, reserve trips or manage files. Anthropic proves his own agent with similar functions in controlled environments. Google works in Jarvis, his future digital butler. The idea is clear: delegate real tasks in artificial intelligences. But that same autonomy that makes them useful allies also makes them a potential risk for cybersecurity.
Dangerous autonomy. Unlike traditional bots, AI agents are not limited to predefined instructions. They can control an operating system or make decisions depending on the context. In wrong hands, this autonomy could facilitate complex attacks without the need for human experts. Some laboratory tests already show how these models can replicate operations that previously required advanced technical knowledge, such as automating spying tasks or manipulating system configurations.
The threat begins to appear. Although there is no evidence that they are involved in large -scale cyber attacks, signs have begun to appear. Platforms such as LLM Agent Honeypot, designed to detect suspicious accesses, have registered interactions with possible AI agents. In two confirmed cases, the agents responded to instructions embedded with a typical speed of language models, which points to their growing sophistication. We do not talk about organized offensives yet, but of an increasingly real phase.
Cheaper, faster, more scalable. As Mit Technology Review points out, one of the biggest risks is the potential for climbing. An agent can execute automated actions hundreds of times by a fraction of the cost of a human team. For criminals, that means expanding operations with unprecedented efficiency. If today the mass attacks require investment and specialized personnel, tomorrow they could be launched automatically, selecting objectives and exploring vulnerabilities without constant supervision.
LLM Agent Honeypot operation operation scheme
Detecting them is not so easy. Although current cybersecurity tools are effective against sophisticated threats, agents introduce a new type of challenge. Unlike classic malware, these systems can reason, adapt to the environment and modify their real -time behavior. This ability to mimic with legitimate traffic forces to rethink detection methods and to develop specific techniques to identify patterns of artificial intelligence.
The industry is still exploring how far these systems can go. Some investigations show that, given ambiguous instructions, certain agents can execute unexpected actions. Although they still need human support to complete complex attacks, their evolution is rapid. And the most disturbing is not what they can do today, but what they could do tomorrow.
And they will do it in an increasingly adverse scenario. According to checkpoint data, in the third quarter of 2024, cyber attacks increased 75% compared to the same period of the previous year. Each organization suffered on average 1,876 weekly attacks. Sectors such as education, government or health are among the most beaten, and regions such as Africa, Europe and Latin America registered alarming growth. The hardware industry, for example, saw the attacks grow by 191% in just one year.
More than 1,200 ransomware incidents were reported only in that quarter, mainly affecting manufacturers, hospitals and public administrations. If these types of attacks are delegated to AI agents capable of selecting objectives and launching chain offensives, the impact could be shot. The global panorama is tense, and the agents could be the multiplier that the attackers were waiting.
Images | WorldOfSoftware with chatgpt | Palisade Research
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