Security


FIVE EYES BRINGS CYBER RESILIENCE INTO SHARP FOCUS


AI driven attacks are outpacing corporate defences, and the latest Five Eyes alert shows just how quickly the threat landscape is shifting. Boards can no longer treat cyber protection as a bolt on — integrated security is now a strategic necessity, according to Santiago Pontiroli, Lead Security Researcher at Acronis Threat Research Unit.


T


he Five Eyes warning should serve as a wake-up call for every board. AI is accelerating cyber threats faster than most organisations are adapting.


In a statement published in June, the high-level intelligence-


sharing alliance – made up of the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand – warned that while AI will help improve cyber defence over time, it “also accelerates the speed, scale, and sophistication of cyber threats”. In a stark warning, it claimed that frontier AI models are


‘anticipated to exceed current industry expectations, fundamentally transforming both offensive and defensive cyber capabilities’. “Te timeline is not years, it is months,” it said.


Cybersecurity linked to national security and economic stability Te intervention by Five Eyes follows a ministerial letter published last year in which senior government figures called for cybersecurity to be made a ‘board responsibility’ because the UK’s economic and national security require an ‘urgent collective response’. “Strengthening our nation’s cyber resilience requires close


collaboration between government and industry,” they wrote. Both interventions reinforce a reality the security industry has


recognised for years – that cyber risk can no longer be treated purely as an IT department issue. Cybersecurity is now a core business risk and needs to be top of


the agenda for business leaders. As the Five Eyes communiqué makes clear: “It is not enough to


have controls. Leaders must be confident those controls will perform during a real incident. Tis requires reassessing long-standing trade-offs and using AI deliberately to strengthen defence – not just improve efficiency.” But meeting this new challenge requires a change in mindset.


Aſter all, for decades, cybersecurity strategies have been built around prevention. Te objective was straightforward. Build strong enough defences, and that should be enough to keep all but the most persistent attackers out.


20 | July/August 2026 Tis “ring of steel” approach included preventative measures


such as firewalls, endpoint protection, email security, identity management and access controls. Together, they were designed to stop malicious actors from gaining a foothold within an organisation’s networks and systems.


Why prevention-focused security is no longer sufficient But as numerous high-profile incidents have shown, determined attackers do sometimes get through. Te 2024 cyberattack on Transport for London (TFL) – which reportedly cost £29 million in losses and recovery costs – is a case in point. According to the National Crime Agency (NCA), the two


perpetrators – who admitted their involvement in June 2026 – were members of the online criminal collective known as Scattered Spider. As a result of the attack, all 28,000 TFL employees were forced


to attend a TfL office for an in-person password reset. Te breach exposed data from TfL’s Oyster refunds system and delayed customer refunds, leaving some passengers out of pocket for weeks longer than expected. It also closed down the application system for Oyster photocards


for children and young people. Te lesson from this case is stark. While prevention is key, it’s also


essential to have systems and processes in place in the event that something does happen. Instead of assuming, “Tis will never happen to us”, organisations


need to accept that, however strong their defences, there is always a chance an attacker will get through.


The case for integrated cyber protection One of the problems currently facing organisations is the emergence of tool sprawl. Over the years, organisations have layered new security products on top of existing ones, oſten ending up with separate tools for backup, disaster recovery, endpoint protection, patch management and monitoring.


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