AI Arms Race: New Tech Is Changing Government Cybersecurity
AI Arms Race: New Tech Is Changing Government Cybersecurity
https://www.govtech.com/spotlight/ai-arms-race-new-tech-is-changing-government-cybersecurity
Publish Date: 2026-05-14 16:32:00
Source Domain: www.govtech.com
Advances in artificial intelligence have not changed the fundamentals of government cybersecurity, but they have changed the urgency. As AI speeds up cyber attacks and expands the digital landscape, public-sector leaders say weaknesses are now being exploited faster and more aggressively.
From cyber commands to state technology offices, government cyber leaders describe a changing environment that is increasingly defined by constant threats and shrinking response times. At the same time, AI is also giving defenders new tools to combine with traditional cybersecurity best practices. In short, AI is helping to automate both cyber attacks as well as cyber defense efforts.
The usual pressures facing government technology, meanwhile, remain unchanged, including limited resources, complex systems and the size of attack surfaces. With AI in play, those long-standing challenges now translate far more quickly into dangerous risks.
“AI is the biggest disruptor we’ve seen in a very long time,” says Missouri CISO Shawn Ivy, a veteran of the public sector with more than 30 years of experience. “We’re seeing the reports of how fast a vulnerability can be exploited, and it has gone from weeks, days, months — now we’re down to minutes.”
AI-fueled cyber attacks have already spiked the number of threats facing Missouri and other states. Ivy says his state faced 22 billion perimeter requests during a recent month, the highest volume within such a time frame.
“And I have no doubt that is partly because AI is being used,” he says.
HOW AI ADVANCEMENTS FUEL CYBER THREATS TO GOVERNMENT
Omer Dembinsky, data research group manager for Check Point Software Technologies, a cybersecurity company with public-sector clients, focuses on analyzing broad cybersecurity trends rather than individual attacks. He and his colleagues examine patterns in the volume and types of threats across global networks…
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