Britain should be prepared for an AI-powered cyberattack on its critical national infrastructure in the next two years, the UK's National Cyber Security Centre said on Tuesday, adding that China was likely the best equipped to conduct such operations.

Richard Horne, chief executive of the NCSC, which is part of the GCHQ spy agency, said far too many organisations and supply chains in Britain had got away with "doing tech on the cheap" for decades, leaving them vulnerable.

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"But we must be clear that is not because AI has invented new ways to attack us, but because vulnerabilities that have been tolerated for far too long can now be discovered and exploited at a scale that was once unimaginable."

In its annual report (pdf), the NCSC said it was highly likely there would be  a ransomware attack involving AI-powered malware by 2028 on the nation's critical infrastructure.

During that same period, it warned that AI use by hostile actors was also set to enhance the scale and efficiency of their operations.

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