Security firm Tanium has warned that the emergence of highly capable AI systems such as Claude Mythos could fundamentally reshape cyber risk by dramatically accelerating vulnerability discovery and exploitation.
In a new blog post, Tanium argues that many organisations are still operating security models designed for human-speed attacks, despite facing increasingly autonomous and machine-driven threats.
The company said AI-powered vulnerability discovery could compress the time between identifying a weakness and exploiting it, leaving public sector organisations particularly exposed if they continue relying on fragmented visibility, manual remediation processes and delayed patch cycles.
AI changes the pace of cyberattacks
According to Tanium, the key issue is not simply that AI can help attackers find more vulnerabilities, but that it can do so at unprecedented speed and scale.
The company said advanced AI models are now capable of identifying patterns, chaining vulnerabilities together and surfacing exploitable weaknesses faster than traditional security operations can respond.
Tanium warned that security teams operating on weekly or monthly remediation cycles may struggle in an environment where vulnerabilities can potentially be identified and weaponised within hours.
The blog argues that this creates a widening gap between the speed of AI-driven attacks and the speed of traditional enterprise security operations.
“Every delay becomes a liability,” the company wrote, warning that organisations without continuous visibility and rapid remediation capabilities risk falling behind increasingly automated threats.
Legacy environments create public sector exposure
The warning is likely to resonate across UK public sector organisations managing large and complex IT estates.
Government departments, councils, NHS bodies and critical infrastructure operators often operate mixed environments containing legacy systems, unsupported software, hybrid cloud environments and fragmented endpoint estates.
Tanium argued that these environments create significant challenges when organisations lack real-time visibility into assets, vulnerabilities and software exposure.
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The company said many organisations still depend on periodic scans and disconnected security tools that do not provide an accurate or current view of risk across their environments.
In practice, that can leave security teams struggling to identify vulnerable devices quickly enough to respond to rapidly evolving threats.
Shadow AI raises governance concerns
The blog also linked the rise of advanced AI threats to the growing problem of “shadow AI” inside organisations.
Tanium warned that employees are increasingly adopting unauthorised AI tools and autonomous coding assistants outside approved governance frameworks, potentially exposing sensitive data or creating unmanaged security risks.
The company said this creates additional challenges for security and IT teams attempting to maintain visibility and control across increasingly distributed digital environments.
For public sector organisations handling sensitive citizen, healthcare or operational data, those governance concerns are becoming more significant as generative AI adoption accelerates.
The analysis suggests organisations need stronger controls around AI usage, alongside improved visibility into endpoints, identities and software activity.
Continuous remediation becoming essential
Tanium argued that traditional cybersecurity approaches centred around periodic reviews and reactive patching are no longer sufficient in an AI-driven threat landscape.
Instead, the company said organisations need continuous exposure management, real-time asset visibility and the ability to remediate vulnerabilities rapidly across their environments.
The blog emphasised the importance of integrating operational and security capabilities more closely so organisations can identify and fix issues at machine speed rather than relying on slower manual workflows.
According to Tanium, the organisations best positioned to respond to AI-driven cyber threats will be those capable of continuously monitoring, prioritising and remediating risk across their entire technology estate.
