A series of cybersecurity incidents in October has raised concerns about the security of an increasingly AI-driven internet. Vulnerabilities in widely used software, weaknesses in digital certificates and attacks involving autonomous AI agents have exposed how quickly security gaps can be exploited.

Cybersecurity researchers have dubbed the spate of incidents “Black October”. The concern is not just the number of attacks, but the speed at which vulnerabilities can be discovered and weaponised, sometimes with little human involvement.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Gulshan Rai, former director general of CERT-In; Huzefa Motiwala, senior director at Palo Alto Networks; and AI expert Sumit Gupta discussed how artificial intelligence is changing cybersecurity, why existing safeguards are falling short and what organisations can do to protect their systems.

Their assessment points to a growing challenge: attackers can use AI to find and exploit weaknesses faster, while businesses struggle to implement security measures and monitor their systems effectively.

Recent vulnerabilities in PHP, a programming language used by roughly 70% of websites, illustrate how quickly security weaknesses can become a threat. Researchers used AI to identify two vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to steal data or take control of affected servers. Cloudflare reported that attempts to exploit the vulnerabilities rose from thousands to millions after their disclosure.

Motiwala said AI models were enabling security researchers to identify vulnerabilities at a pace that would previously have been difficult to achieve.

“Our threat research team at Unit 42 found 14,000 vulnerabilities across close to 4,000 open-source software projects in just under two months.

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