Why Cybersecurity's Uncertainty Problem Is Getting Worse

Cryptography Researcher Paul Kocher on AI's Threat to Security's Edges Mathew J. Schwartz (euroinfosec) • March 27, 2026

Cybersecurity is entering its most uncertain period in decades, and even leading cryptographers can't agree on where the greatest threats are coming from or how quickly they will emerge.

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"I think of cryptography as these golden, perfect bricks that you can try to build things with, but all the mortar in between and the pieces around them aren't as robust, and AI can really chip away at those edges much more effectively than humans can," said Paul Kocher, independent cryptography and data security researcher and co-author of the SSL/TLS protocol.

He said artificial intelligence will not break foundational algorithms such as AES or SHA-3, but will accelerate vulnerability discovery in protocols and implementations at a rate human defenders ...