NSA wants AI to help analysts sift vast data troves

Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Tasks that take days or weeks will be done "much faster," says the agency’s cybersecurity chief.

The National Security Agency is leaning into artificial intelligence tools to process the mass volumes of data it collects, allowing analysts to sort through tasks and find anomalies faster, a top official said Tuesday.

“I think right now we’re looking at how to use an AI where we could triage so much more,” David Imbordino, the head of the agency’s cybersecurity directorate, said on a panel with officials from the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit in Washington, D.C.

The agency ingests vast amounts of data every day, including intercepted foreign communications and electronic signals from radar and weapons systems. Imbordino’s directorate, in particular, focuses on both intelligence collection and cyberdefense.

“Volume has always been a problem,” he said, but AI has raised the prospect of getting “to the nuggets” faster than before. In the near future, analysts will likely use AI tools to look at disparate pieces of information and evaluate them “much more quickly” than current methods that can take days or weeks, Imbordino added.

His remarks highlight one of many ways the nation’s cyber and intelligence agencies are putting AI to work and show the omnipresent role such systems will play in day-to-day work in spy offices.

NSA has also taken a leading role in the Trump administration’s AI policy efforts as increasingly powerful tools promise to help defenders find and fix software flaws while giving hackers new ways to break into networks. Late last month, NSA deputy director Tim Kosiba said that the agency wants access to a wide range of models and is engaging heavily with frontier AI companies.

The agency is helping to implement a sweeping June executive order directing national security agencies to create classified tests for determining when AI systems have developed sufficiently advanced hacking capabilities to warrant additional scrutiny. The order calls, in part, for a voluntary arrangement through which developers can give the federal government access to qualifying models for as many as 30 days before releasing them to other trusted partners.

NEXT STORY: CIA cyber intelligence helped US forces capture Maduro, deputy director says

Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via Getty Images

该机构网络安全主管表示，原本需要几天甚至几周才能完成的任务将“快得多”。

一位高级官员周二表示，国家安全局正在利用人工智能工具来处理其收集的大量数据，使分析人员能够更快地处理任务并发现异常情况。

“我认为我们现在正在研究如何利用人工智能来更好地进行优先级排序，”该机构网络安全局局长戴维·伊姆博迪诺在华盛顿特区举行的比灵顿网络安全峰会上与“五眼联盟”情报联盟官员举行的小组讨论会上表示。

该机构每天接收海量数据，包括截获的外国通信以及来自雷达和武器系统的电子信号。伊姆博迪诺所在的部门尤其专注于情报收集和网络防御。

“数据量一直是个问题，”他说道，但人工智能的出现让人们有望比以往更快地“找到关键信息”。伊姆博迪诺补充说，在不久的将来，分析师很可能会使用人工智能工具来查看各种分散的信息，并以比目前耗时数天甚至数周的方法“快得多”的速度进行评估。

他的讲话突显了国家网络和情报机构运用人工智能的众多方式之一，并表明此类系统将在间谍机构的日常工作中发挥无处不在的作用。

随着功能日益强大的工具有望帮助安全人员发现并修复软件漏洞，同时也为黑客提供了入侵网络的新途径，美国国家安全局（NSA）在特朗普政府的人工智能政策制定中也扮演了主导角色。上月底，NSA副局长蒂姆·科西巴表示，该机构希望获得各种人工智能模型的使用权限，并正与前沿人工智能公司积极开展合作。

该机构正在协助执行一项影响深远的六月份行政命令，该命令指示国家安全机构制定机密测试，以确定人工智能系统何时发展出足够先进的黑客攻击能力，从而需要接受更严格的审查。该命令部分内容要求达成一项自愿协议，允许开发者在将符合条件的模型发布给其他可信合作伙伴之前，先向联邦政府提供最多30天的访问权限。

下一篇报道：中情局副局长称，中情局网络情报帮助美军抓获马杜罗