‘Tasks That Took Days Now Take Minutes’: Gil Baram on the AI Cyber Threat

This exclusive interview with Gil Baram was conducted by Tabish Ali of the Motivational Speakers Agency.

Gil Baram, PhD, is an internationally recognised cyber security expert, academic and adviser specialising in cyber strategy, emerging technology and global security. A Senior Lecturer at Bar-Ilan University and former Fulbright Cybersecurity Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University, Gil has also held cyber intelligence roles within Israel’s National Information Security Authority.

Her perspective combines direct national security experience with more than a decade of international research and policy work. Gil formerly led the Cyber and Space Research Group at Tel Aviv University and now holds research positions at UC Berkeley and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. She advises governments, multinational companies and international organisations on complex cyber risks.

In this exclusive interview with the Cyber Security Speakers Agency, Gil examines how AI is accelerating cyberattacks, the principles needed to govern AI-driven systems and why cyber risk has become a major geopolitical concern.

Question 1: How is AI reshaping the speed, scale and sophistication of cyberattacks?

Gil Baram: “A year or two ago, many researchers predicted that the use of AI would produce entirely new types of cyberattacks, possibly even catastrophic ones involving methods and techniques we had never seen before. We have not seen anything like that yet.

“We have, however, seen changes in both speed and scale. Attacks are becoming much faster because many stages of the cyber kill chain are being automated by AI. Tasks that previously took several days or many hours of human work can now be completed in minutes.

“Attacks are also happening on a larger scale. Even nation-state attackers, including those from North Korea, are becoming more capable. One reason is that the language barrier has largely disappeared. Before AI, attackers may have relied on tools such as Google Translate, which made phishing emails and scams easier to identify. They can now produce convincing English.

“Their use of technology has improved as well. Reports from Google and OpenAI have described how nation-state actors are using large language models to learn new coding and attack techniques. They are becoming more capable, which allows them to operate at a greater scale.”

Question 2: Which principles should underpin the responsible governance of AI-driven cybersecurity systems?

Gil Baram: “The two most important principles are accountability and transparency.

“For now, human beings remain accountable for how this technology is used and for the results it produces. That goes hand in hand with transparency. We need to be clear about what goes into a system, what comes out and how its output is used.

“AI can be used for many purposes, but we must consider whether it should be used in every case. We need to decide whether we want to remove the human perspective and replace it with artificial intelligence. Accountability and transparency should guide those decisions.”

Question 3: Why should cyber risk now be treated as a geopolitical issue rather than solely a technical concern?

Gil Baram: “Cybersecurity has long had a geopolitical dimension. We tend to view cyber and AI as primarily technical subjects and assume that people who are not computer scientists do not need to understand them.

“The reality is that offensive cyber capabilities have been used for years by nation-states and non-state actors. They are instruments of power and deterrence, with implications that extend far beyond technology.”

Question 4: What is the central message you want audiences to take from your speeches?

Gil Baram: “I want audiences to realise that AI and cyber threats are relevant to our everyday lives. They are not distant issues that we only encounter in the news.

“People do not need a technical background to understand these threats or protect themselves. That is the central message I want audiences to take away.”