US Army Cyber Command is developing ECHOTRIBBLE, autonomous SI agents for attacks on adversary computer systems
Prepared by Sintelligent with the help of SI. Published in SI: . Updated: .
The military wants to hand part of its cyberattacks to autonomous SI agents, and it is unclear how it will limit the damage.
According to documents obtained by The Intercept (a request to contractors and answers to their questions), US Army Cyber Command (ARCYBER) is building a platform meant to "identify and neutralize identified threats/targets," primarily in offensive operations. According to the documents, the software must operate "with minimal human oversight" and act on its own on predefined triggers; "neutralizing" can mean disabling a threat completely or temporarily, or deleting it. The agents are to spread across networks, including those disconnected from the internet, and afterward delete themselves, ideally unnoticed. The article gives no timeline or budget. David Krueger, a professor at the University of Montreal, called building autonomous systems with a mandate to "neutralize threats" "incredibly dangerous"; Hyrum Anderson, head of the company Abundant, asked whether an agent might pass through a US water utility's network on its way. ARCYBER did not respond to the outlet's questions, including those about measures to prevent accidental damage.
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