Could an AI attack force governments to shut down the internet? Governments are rehearsing responses to a major AI-driven cyberattack on the banking system, while the technical foundations of the Internet are cracking under the weight of vulnerabilities. The result could be a scenario where shutting down the Internet is the only way to stop an attack from spreading, cyber defense experts stress. The threats are already materializing South Korea's financial sector suffered an unprecedented wave of attacks in late September and early October, when hackers breached at least seven institutions, including three of the country's four largest banks. GMO Internet Group, a sprawling Japanese technology conglomerate, saw its shares plummet 15% after attackers hacked into a cloud service used by investors, stole passwords and carried out fraudulent transactions at major U.S. banks. Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, J. According to Morgan Wells Fargo - they identified unauthorized AI agents operating inside customer accounts, some of them trying to operate without user instructions. At the end of October, two critical vulnerabilities were revealed in PHP, the programming language that powers about 75% of the Internet, with a maximum severity score of 9.2 out of 10. It wasn't a flaw in a specific website but a hole in the PHP engine itself, which allowed attackers to execute arbitrary code remotely without a password. In the event of a major attack, disconnection is often the only way to buy time, experts warn. If a critical vulnerability affects the banking sector or energy infrastructure, IT teams may not have a patch ready. The only way to stop the spread is to physically disconnect the connection - shutting down a server or blocking traffic at the carrier level.

Could an AI attack force governments to shut down the internet? Governments are rehearsing responses to a major AI-driven cyberattack on the banking system, while the technical foundations of the Internet are cracking under the weight of vulnerabilities. The result could be a scenario where shutting down the Internet is the only way to stop an attack from spreading, cyber defense experts stress. The threats are already materializing South Korea's financial sector suffered an unprecedented wave of attacks in late September and early October, when hackers breached at least seven institutions, including three of the country's four largest banks. GMO Internet Group, a sprawling Japanese technology conglomerate, saw its shares plummet 15% after attackers hacked into a cloud service used by investors, stole passwords and carried out fraudulent transactions at major U.S. banks. Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, J. According to Morgan Wells Fargo - they identified unauthorized AI agents operating inside customer accounts, some of them trying to operate without user instructions. At the end of October, two critical vulnerabilities were revealed in PHP, the programming language that powers about 75% of the Internet, with a maximum severity score of 9.2 out of 10. It wasn't a flaw in a specific website but a hole in the PHP engine itself, which allowed attackers to execute arbitrary code remotely without a password. In the event of a major attack, disconnection is often the only way to buy time, experts warn. If a critical vulnerability affects the banking sector or energy infrastructure, IT teams may not have a patch ready. The only way to stop the spread is to physically disconnect the connection - shutting down a server or blocking traffic at the carrier level.