Intelligence agencies for Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States warned in a rare joint statement that AI-powered cyberattacks capable of overwhelming government and business defenses may be just months away. 

The June 22 statement by the agencies—known as the Five Eyes—says they anticipate the advanced capabilities of frontier models like Anthropic’s Fable 5 and OpenAI’s Daybreak will “exceed current industry expectations, fundamentally transforming both offensive and defensive cyber capabilities.” 

The agencies did not publicly detail the evidence underlying their assessment, but the warning aligns with concerns public cybersecurity and AI experts have been raising for months. The statement comes just days after the U.S. government issued an export control directive to Anthropic to suspend all foreign nationals’ access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5, whether inside or outside the country. The order is one of the most wide-ranging government responses to the capabilities of an AI model to date. 

“We now estimate a narrow three-to-five month window for organizations to outpace the adversary before AI-driven exploits start to become the new norm,” warned Lee Klarich, chief technology officer of the cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks in May. “This impending vulnerability deluge demands urgency.” 

The alliance’s warning targeted leaders not only of governments and corporations, but of small and medium businesses around the world, urging them to gauge their organizations’ risk levels, review readiness measures, and remain actively engaged with emerging AI-related threats. The agencies identified outdated systems, slow patch management, unnecessary internet connectivity, weak access controls and inadequate incident-response planning by organizations as vulnerabilities leaving organizations especially vulnerable to AI-enabled cyberattacks. 

The statement included a set of practical actions that leaders can use to strengthen their defenses, including limiting who and what can connect to systems, quickly installing security updates and replacing outdated and unsupported technology. The statement also advised strictly controlling who has access to sensitive or confidential information and to regularly practice response drills in case of an attack.

“Success will not come from having the most tools,” the intelligence agencies said. “It will come from getting the basics right, acting quickly, and integrating cyber security into core business strategy.”

At its core, the guidance reinforces a long-standing recommendation: cybersecurity should be treated as central to operational continuity rather than as a secondary concern. And, coming as it does so soon after the order to Anthropic, it reflects how rapidly threats are evolving as frontier AI systems advance and governments and companies struggle to keep step. 

“The rapid pace of frontier AI development means cyber risk assumptions can become outdated in months, not years,” the agencies said. “In that spirit, we call on leaders across industry to act now and work together to protect our people and secure our future.”

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