America's highest-ranking cybersecurity official is sounding the alarm, urging computer systems across the country to bolster their defenses against the growing threat of artificial intelligence-powered cyberattacks. Acting US Federal Chief Information Security Officer Michael Duffy stated on Wednesday that both government and private sector organizations have traditionally taken a reactive approach to cybersecurity. He argued this strategy must fundamentally change to get ahead of hackers before they strike in the age of AI.

"Given the AI capabilities we are now witnessing, we likely won't have the luxury of cleaning up the mess afterward," Duffy said during a panel discussion at a cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas. "Policy over the next decade cannot continue to be a reaction to a major incident." The rapid breakthroughs in AI systems, including models like Anthropic PBC's Mythos, have raised concerns that hackers could exploit the technology to launch devastating cyberattacks on critical infrastructure. The Trump administration has already moved to address AI-related cyber risks, recently completing a voluntary safety testing framework for frontier models.

Duffy's remarks come shortly after Bloomberg News reported that hackers have recently executed a series of sophisticated attacks on multiple Wall Street firms, highlighting the increasingly complex threats and fraud targeting financial services companies. In the same panel discussion, another senior official from the Department of Homeland Security emphasized that the US must maintain its global leadership in AI while ensuring access to the technology is not concentrated in the hands of a few. Joseph Alm, Assistant Secretary for Cyber, Infrastructure, Risk, and Resilience at the Department of Homeland Security, stated that as AI rapidly evolves and spreads, the industry must prepare for a period of heightened vulnerability.

"A breached network is no longer a black swan event; it will become the new normal," Alm said. "You need to shift your mindset and recognize that in an era where everyone can find or exploit a vulnerability, we all face a multi-year stretch of fragility." Alm added that after a few years, conditions may gradually return to a more stable state.