by Site Administrator | May 8, 2026 11:28 am
Schumer: This Is A Race Between Cyber Defenders And AI-Enabled Hackers — And There’s No Time To Waste
New York, N.Y. – Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) demanded that the Department of Homeland Security rapidly develop a plan to work with state, local, tribal, and territorial governments to protect hospitals, power grids, water systems, schools, election systems, telecommunications networks, and other critical infrastructure from a looming new era of AI-enabled hacking.
Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called on the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate with state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments to make sure that their digital systems—such as those that are in hospitals; energy grids; water infrastructure; school, election, and telecommunications systems; and other critical infrastructure—are not vulnerable to AI-enabled hacking.
Leader Schumer’s push follows Anthropic’s announcement of Claude Mythos Preview, an advanced AI model that will rapidly surpass human capabilities to find software vulnerabilities. While advanced AI will undoubtedly help bolster cyber defenses, it is inevitable that criminal and state-backed hacking groups will also exploit this new technology to conduct AI-enabled hacking and attempt to cripple entire nations and economies, making coordination between the federal government and SLTT governments to identify and fix digital vulnerabilities essential. Current estimates predict that advanced AI-enabled hacking could be broadly available within six months.
“As AI continues its rapid development – including important cybersecurity advances as well as dangerous new hacking tools – it is imperative that all levels of our government have access to this technology so they can prepare before it’s too late. We must beat cyber criminals in the race to defend our most critical systems from AI-enabled hacking or attacks,” said Leader Schumer. “There is no excuse for the Department of Homeland Security’s delay in bolstering state and local government cybersecurity capabilities. We must begin this process now – before there are any major disruptions to hospitals or energy grids—or worse.”
“AI is changing the cyber battlefield fast — and we cannot let hackers get there first,” said Leader Schumer. “Hospitals, power grids, water systems, schools, elections, and emergency services cannot be left exposed while criminal gangs and state-backed hackers race to exploit new AI tools. DHS must immediately help states and localities find and fix vulnerabilities before Americans are hit with outages, disruptions, and attacks that could put lives and livelihoods at risk. This is a race between cyber defenders and AI-enabled hackers — and with communities across the country at risk, there is no time to waste.”
Reportedly, the White House has begun conversations to consider how the federal government can internally mitigate threats from AI-enabled hacking. But as Leader Schumer made clear, the federal government must also update its guidance to support SLTT governments—which are on the front lines of operating, updating, and securing critical infrastructure every day—and identified six specific areas of vulnerability.
The full text of the letter can be seen here[1] and below.
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Dear Secretary Mullin:
Since Anthropic announced Claude Mythos Preview about a month ago, the world has been coming to grips with the fact that advanced AI models will rapidly surpass humans in their ability to find and exploit software vulnerabilities. As the Trump Administration scrambles to coordinate the federal government’s response to this new era of frontier AI-enabled hacking, I am concerned by the lack of an effective plan to coordinate with state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments.
Frontier AI models like Mythos and OpenAI’s GPT-5.5-Cyber bring a level of coding capability that will allow them to identify and fix vulnerabilities in digital systems that are critical to SLTT governments, such as hospitals, energy grids, water infrastructure, school systems, election systems, telecommunications, and other critical infrastructure. At the same time, malicious actors – such as criminal and state-backed hacking groups – will inevitably use frontier AI to supercharge their attacks on these same systems. This is a race between cybersecurity defenders and AI-enabled hacking – and there’s no time to waste. In fact, top researchers have estimated that these advanced AI models will be broadly available within six to twelve months.
So far, there is promising collaboration underway through initiatives like Anthropic’s Project Glasswing, which is providing leading technology companies with controlled access to Mythos for evaluation and security testing. According to the company, Mythos has already found thousands of high-severity vulnerabilities, including some in “every major operating system and web browser.” OpenAI’s Trusted Access for Cyber (TAC) program is giving similar access to their new GPT-5.5-Cyber model, including for cybersecurity professionals in government and the broader industry ecosystem. Such collaboration is critical, but it does not adequately account for the SLTT governments who are responsible for operating, updating, and securing critical infrastructure on a daily basis. This need is particularly vital for small and rural jurisdictions lacking extensive in-house cybersecurity resources.
While the White House has reportedly begun hosting meetings about its internal security priorities following these frontier AI cyber breakthroughs, it is glaringly obvious that the Department of Homeland Security needs an updated plan for coordinating these efforts with SLTT governments and implementing procedures to reduce the risk of disruptive cyberattacks enabled by frontier AI. For example, SLTT governments need answers to the following questions:
Many of these efforts are facilitated by the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), which was designated by DHS in 2010 as the primary resource for 24/7 monitoring, cyber threat intelligence sharing, prevention, protection, coordinated response, and recovery for SLTT governments in all 56 states and territories. Unfortunately, last year DHS suspended congressionally-mandated funding for the MS-ISAC with the intent to transition to a “new model” for supporting SLTTs in defending against digital threats. Given the monumental changes quickly coming to cybersecurity as the result of frontier AI, and the need for organizations to be able to perceive and contextualize risks earlier than ever before, there could not be a worse time to undercut proven, longstanding MS-ISAC processes, procedures, and resources for sharing cyberthreat intelligence with SLTTs.
Therefore, I request that you provide congress with a plan for coordinating our nation’s response to frontier AI-enabled hacking by July 1, 2026. I ask that this plan provide answers to the questions outlined above as well as clear information for SLTTs to use in urgently preparing for these unparalleled changes before it is too late.
Finally, DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is responsible for leading the national effort to understand, manage, and reduce risk to our cyber and physical infrastructure. CISA has been without a senate-confirmed director during the entire second term of the Trump Administration. As of today, the President has not even identified a nominee. Assigning qualified leadership to CISA and getting the Agency’s house in order to prepare for the rapid acceleration of frontier AI-enabled hacking should be central to your planning.
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