ONCD official says Trump administration aims to bolster AI use for defense without increasing risk

Alexandra Seymour also talked about cyber workforce goals, including emulating Israel’s Unit 8200.

The Trump administration wants to boost the use of artificial intelligence for security in a way that doesn’t increase the number of targets for adversaries to attack, a top official with the Office of the National Cyber Director said Thursday.

The administration will “promote the rapid implementation of AI enabled cyber defensive tools to detect, divert and deceive threat actors who continue targeting our vital systems and sectors,” Alexandra Seymour, principal deputy assistant cyber director for policy, said at CyberTalks, presented by CyberScoop. “We want to ensure that as Americans, companies and agencies deploy AI to defend themselves, they are not inadvertently making themselves more vulnerable by widening the attack surface.”

Overall, “We’re working with our interagency and White House colleagues to promote AI-driven success while addressing concerns about AI security and countering AI abuse by adversaries,” she said.

The focus on AI is expected to get further attention from a forthcoming national cyber strategy and the implementation of that strategy due to follow.

“We are prioritizing rapid but secure AI development and diffusion,” Seymour said. “From the start, we will support a full range of counter-AI efforts, assuring our frontier models and countering adversary AI that controls or threatens citizens.”

Seymour reiterated how that means promoting U.S. AI cybersecurity standards and norms, but also  “establishing industry best practices for secure AI deployment and harnessing the full potential of AI tools.”

One of the six pillars of that forthcoming strategy is focused on strengthening the cybersecurity workforce. The administration wants to consolidate existing efforts, drawing on the work of companies, government, academia, vocational schools and venture capital, Seymour said.

The administration wants to align “curriculum, workforce standards, cyber literacy, awards and job placement,” she said.

Seymour said one thing the administration hopes to emulate is Israel’s Unit 8200, an intelligence arm of the Israeli government that counts cyberwarfare among its missions. Its practices for training young talent includes boot camp-like classes and exercises.

“The White House does not want to reinvent the wheel, because we recognize the magnitude of great work in the space across the public and private sectors to train and upskill the cyber workforce,” Seymour said. “Rather, we hope to bring these existing resources all together to build a workforce pipeline that is clear, accessible and responsive to cyber skill gaps, including those related to emerging technologies such as AI and quantum.”

The Trump administration has shed personnel at major cyber agencies across the government.

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Government

• Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models

• CIA’s Michael Ellis says cyber intelligence is changing how the agency operates

• The G7 tells industry to hurry up and prep for post-quantum encryption

• Jail time for Maine child in 764 marks turning point in federal law enforcement

Technology

• European parliament members call for slowdown of Serbia’s EU entry over spyware use

• FCC proposes public scorecard to rate telecoms on anti-robocall efforts

• Pegasus, NoviSpy variant spyware found on devices of Serbian activists

• Wyden seeks upgraded NSA security guidance on commercial VPN use

Threats

• Chinese espionage groups swarm to exploit triple-link chain of zero-days

• Microsoft discloses two actively exploited zero-days among 974 vulnerabilities

• Russian national extradited to US for alleged involvement in bank-account takeover scheme

• Attackers exploit zero-days in consistently besieged SonicWall product

Policy

• Whistleblower says USPS deploying new, ‘untested’ IT systems governing mail-in ballots

• ‘Watershed 250’ test program in Texas looks to private sector for water cybersecurity help

• Former sexual abuse victims say Grok used their images, videos to train deepfake capabilities

• Cyber threats nudge Trump to sign executive order on foreign equipment in U.S. energy infrastructure