Frontier AI's Impact on the Cybersecurity Landscape

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Potter, Yujin, Guo, Wenbo, Wang, Zhun, Shi, Tianneng, Li, Hongwei, Zhang, Andy, Kelley, Patrick Gage, Thomas, Kurt, Song, Dawn
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Potter, Yujin
Guo, Wenbo
Wang, Zhun
Shi, Tianneng
Li, Hongwei
Zhang, Andy
Kelley, Patrick Gage
Thomas, Kurt
Song, Dawn
author_facet Potter, Yujin
Guo, Wenbo
Wang, Zhun
Shi, Tianneng
Li, Hongwei
Zhang, Andy
Kelley, Patrick Gage
Thomas, Kurt
Song, Dawn
contents The impact of frontier AI (i.e., AI agents and foundation models) in cybersecurity is rapidly increasing. In this paper, we comprehensively analyze this trend through multiple aspects: quantitative benchmarks, qualitative literature review, empirical evaluation, and expert survey. Our analyses consistently show that AI's capabilities and applications in attacks have exceeded those on the defensive side. Our empirical evaluation of widely used agent systems on cybersecurity benchmarks highlights that current AI agents struggle with flexible workflow planning and using domain-specific tools for complex security analysis -- capabilities particularly critical for defensive applications. Our expert survey of AI and security researchers and practitioners indicates a prevailing view that AI will continue to benefit attackers over defenders, though the gap is expected to narrow over time. These results show the urgent need to evaluate and mitigate frontier AI's risks, steering it towards benefiting cyber defenses. Responding to this need, we provide concrete calls to action regarding: the construction of new cybersecurity benchmarks, the development of AI agents for defense, the design of provably secure AI agents, the improvement of pre-deployment security testing and transparency, and the strengthening of user-oriented education and defenses. Our paper summary and blog are available at https://rdi.berkeley.edu/frontier-ai-impact-on-cybersecurity/.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_05408
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Frontier AI's Impact on the Cybersecurity Landscape
Potter, Yujin
Guo, Wenbo
Wang, Zhun
Shi, Tianneng
Li, Hongwei
Zhang, Andy
Kelley, Patrick Gage
Thomas, Kurt
Song, Dawn
Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
Computers and Society
The impact of frontier AI (i.e., AI agents and foundation models) in cybersecurity is rapidly increasing. In this paper, we comprehensively analyze this trend through multiple aspects: quantitative benchmarks, qualitative literature review, empirical evaluation, and expert survey. Our analyses consistently show that AI's capabilities and applications in attacks have exceeded those on the defensive side. Our empirical evaluation of widely used agent systems on cybersecurity benchmarks highlights that current AI agents struggle with flexible workflow planning and using domain-specific tools for complex security analysis -- capabilities particularly critical for defensive applications. Our expert survey of AI and security researchers and practitioners indicates a prevailing view that AI will continue to benefit attackers over defenders, though the gap is expected to narrow over time. These results show the urgent need to evaluate and mitigate frontier AI's risks, steering it towards benefiting cyber defenses. Responding to this need, we provide concrete calls to action regarding: the construction of new cybersecurity benchmarks, the development of AI agents for defense, the design of provably secure AI agents, the improvement of pre-deployment security testing and transparency, and the strengthening of user-oriented education and defenses. Our paper summary and blog are available at https://rdi.berkeley.edu/frontier-ai-impact-on-cybersecurity/.
title Frontier AI's Impact on the Cybersecurity Landscape
topic Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
Computers and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.05408