‘We have a limited window’: 116 companies, entities sign on to major AI cyber defense push

“We have a limited window to strengthen cyber defenses,” the letter said.

The group of 116 entities urged every organization to “raise the security bar” on defense tools, upgrade security systems and utilize a mix of low-cost and frontier models.

The letter also called for a coordinated government effort to fund cyber defense and improve accessibility for under-resourced critical infrastructure like hospitals and water treatment plants, which have been major attack targets.

The group of signatories includes cybersecurity leaders, financial services companies, semiconductor companies and cloud providers.

Sophisticated AI models, capable of orchestrating agentic attacks in minutes, have upended the cyber industry in recent months, cementing the need for better security tools to combat mounting AI threats.

Open-source AI platform Hugging Face, which signed the letter, was recently at the center of a breach orchestrated by rogue OpenAI agents. The hack rattled the cyber and tech sector, raising questions over accelerating AI development.

Amid this backdrop, cybersecurity companies have skyrocketed in value as businesses recognize the security need and have managed to brush off earlier disruption concerns that rattled the broader software sector this year.

Cyber leaders CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks have more than doubled in value over the last year, and both Okta and CrowdStrike jumped double digits on Thursday after posting strong earnings on AI security momentum.