Cyber Earth
By Tom Gilbreath
Cybersecurity may sound like the most boring topic in the world — specialized, complex, and esoteric. But if you use money, credit cards, or have a bank account, it’s a crucial topic for you. It’s also vital if you use a cell phone, drive a car, rely on electricity, or drink from a municipal water supply. In fact, cybersecurity is central to your wellbeing, as well as that of your family, neighbors, and country.
The smartphone in your pocket holds thousands to millions of times more computing power, memory, and storage than all of NASA's computing resources during the 1969 moon landing. And that’s just one device. Most people have others as well. But with all that power, there is also massive vulnerability — like Superman on an island made of kryptonite.
Computers run on software, and software can be hacked — taken over, controlled by someone else. We’ve long lived with human hackers. That was bad enough. But the problem may be on the verge of becoming much worse as artificial intelligence is used to penetrate systems once thought impenetrable.
A human can spend months combing through line after line of code searching for a single flaw — and still miss it, even with it right in front of him. AI does not get tired, so it does not lose concentration. It thrives on large, repetitive, detail-heavy work. What takes a human months, AI can do in minutes or even seconds.
This month, the AI giant, Anthropic, introduced a new AI agent known as Mythos. It searches out security vulnerabilities in other systems. And it’s apparently better at finding them than its makers had expected. It may be the most dangerous piece of computer software ever built. Anthropic says it’s too dangerous to release to the public — a claim no AI company has ever made before. According to Anthropic, Mythos has already uncovered vulnerabilities in software long considered rock-solid — systems that banks and countries have relied on to protect sensitive data for decades.
Last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sent a warning to major banks about the risks posed by Mythos. Anthropic is releasing Mythos to about 40 technology companies, hoping they will use it to identify and fix vulnerabilities in their own programs before Mythos or something like it falls into the hands of bad actors. The problem is that by sending it to these 40 massive companies, they may have guaranteed that it will fall into the wrong hands.
Similar tools are in development at other companies, including OpenAI. Still others are being built by independent actors, terrorist groups, and nation-states around the world. But Mythos seems to be something strange and unexpected. During a safety test, researchers placed it in a secure, isolated environment to see if it could escape. It did. Not only did it break out, it gained access to the internet. After bypassing its safeguards, it emailed a researcher to report its success. Then, without being asked, it posted details of its adventure to publicly accessible websites.
The Bible tells us that the Antichrist will arrive on the world scene after the rapture. He will somehow persuade world leaders to hand over the entire planet’s monetary system to him. For that to happen, he will first need a world in chaos, gripped by fear — especially fear of global economic collapse. Next, he will need tools that can extend his reach into the pocketbooks of every individual on earth.
AI could do both. It could create the kind of chaos that will threaten the global economy. And once he has established control, AI could give him the kind of reach necessary to implement his mark-of-the-beast economic system.
We live in a volatile, fast-changing world. Stay close to the One who changes not (Malachi 3:6) and in Whom there is no “shadow of turning” (James 1:17).
