Bank built its own AI threat hunter because vendors can’t • The Register
Bank built its own AI threat hunter because vendors can’t • The Register
https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/17/commonwealth_bank_ai_defense/
Publish Date: 2026-03-16 22:37:00
Source Domain: www.theregister.com
Australia’s Commonwealth Bank built its own agentic AI threat hunting tools, because vendors are too slow to develop tools that can cope with emerging AI-powered threats, according to General Manager of Cyber Defence Operations Andrew Pade.
Speaking at analyst firm Gartner’s Security & Risk Management Summit in Sydney on Tuesday, Pade said he joined the bank six years ago when it logged 80 million daily threat signals. That figure now tops four billion, and he said AI is one reason for the growth.
Pade told the event that the bank investigated attacks such as phishing emails and sites, and found the same code – sometimes including clear artefacts of AI coding tools – in many different attacks.
“The lure changed, but the backend was the same,” he said. Since the advent of AI, the volume of attacks the bank detects has also increased.
“When I joined [six years ago], we ingested 80 million signals a week,” Pade said. “Last week it was 400 billion.”
“You cannot manage that with traditional cyber defences.”
Pade worried that the sheer scale of threats is also a career-killer. He said the bank now hires graduates with cybersecurity skills, a change from his own career path that saw early career IT workers start on a help desk and learn infosec on the job. He said cybersecurity graduates now walk into a high-pressure environment that represents a mental health challenge.
“One of the things that really concerns me is taking that off the table,” Pade said.
“I wanted our first-level analysts the access the same knowledge our senior people have, in the fastest way,” he added. “That was the tipping point: How do I take scale off the table, and how do I ensure all our agents are working in cyber in 20 years time” instead of burning out?
The bank’s response…
