INTERPOL global chief information security officer Bjorn R. Watne warned at Tech Week Singapore that organizations must prioritize identifying their core assets, or "crown jewels," as artificial intelligence accelerates the speed and scale of cyber fraud. Speaking to CNBC on Thursday, Watne emphasized that AI primarily enables bad actors to execute existing scam tactics faster and across larger target groups.
Prioritizing Corporate Assets Against AI Threats
According to Watne, businesses need to map out the exact critical assets their operations rely on before assessing who would gain the most from disrupting or stealing them. Rather than attempting to shield against every hypothetical attack vector simultaneously, companies should leverage targeted threat intelligence to match their defense strategies to specific adversaries, distinguishing between opportunistic attackers and advanced persistent threat (APT) actors.
This warning arrives as malicious groups rapidly integrate machine learning into their operations. Cybersecurity firm TeamT5 revealed that Chinese state-affiliated hacking groups more than doubled their overall attack volume following the adoption of open-source AI models. The surge in automated cyber risks occurs while crypto hacks reached $2.7 billion and AI agents and bots drive 57% of global web traffic.
Agentic AI Risks and Industry Warnings
A chief concern for Watne is agentic AI—systems capable of autonomously carrying out multi-step tasks for users. Watne cautioned that improper autonomous execution in physical systems, such as connected vehicles and self-driving cars, could result in direct physical harm.
Government bodies and tech industry leaders have expressed similar reservations regarding autonomous software:
- In May, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued joint guidance advising firms to assume agentic AI systems will act unexpectedly until standard security protocols mature.
- In August, OpenAI released an open letter warning that AI-driven cyberattacks will expand rapidly within months.
- More than 100 initial signatories joined the letter, including Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, Coinbase, and Circle.
Why It Matters
As enterprise systems become increasingly interconnected with autonomous AI agents, cybersecurity strategy must pivot from broad perimeter defense to deep risk prioritization. Watne's framework reflects a realistic operational shift: defending everything equally is impossible when AI lowers the cost of continuous, high-volume targeting. For digital asset platforms holding substantial capital, identifying high-priority attack vectors is essential to prevent systemic exploits before autonomous threats scale further.
