The development of artificial intelligence may lead to serious incidents on the internet occurring almost every week. This scenario was described by Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince following the recent discovery of vulnerabilities in PHP—a programming language estimated to be used on about 70% of websites. Due to the identified issues, some resources were temporarily disconnected from the network. Prince believes that similar situations will repeat in the coming years: large language models allow for faster identification of weaknesses in software, including components crucial to the functioning of internet infrastructure. According to him, both security specialists and attackers can now use AI to find previously unknown vulnerabilities.
Previously, finding errors and turning them into tools for attacks required significant time and involvement of qualified specialists. The use of language models and AI agents lowers these barriers, allowing for the automation of part of the work. Researchers from Wiz Research, who participated in discovering recent PHP issues using AI tools, noted that technology has changed the time and resource costs for finding vulnerabilities and exploiting them. According to the team, advanced models helped create and adapt working exploits for different applications within a few hours. This increases the risks for developers and service operators, who have to identify problems faster, release fixes, and check the security of the components they use.
Prince expects that in the coming months, cybersecurity specialists will face an increase in the number of exploits created with the help of AI. However, he believes that in the long term, software may become more reliable: discovered vulnerabilities will be fixed, and accumulated experience will help strengthen system protection. Thus, the development of AI simultaneously expands the capabilities of attackers and accelerates the work of security specialists. The outcome will depend on how quickly developers can identify vulnerabilities, release patches, and implement them in the systems they use. For now, according to the head of Cloudflare, the internet is set to go through a period of increased instability related to the accelerated automated search for weaknesses.
This material is prepared solely for informational purposes and does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation.