The Fourth Front – Quantum Breakthroughs & AI Agents Are Reshaping Cyber War

Cyberwar is escalating FAST! Quantum breakthroughs and AI agents are reshaping the battlefield, with a 500% surge in attacks on Indian infrastructure. Can quantum cryptography save us, or will AI-driven threats outpace defenses?

Cyberwar, the fourth front, after land, sea, and air, saw a 500% escalation in attacks on Indian infrastructure during the recent conflict between India and Pakistan, per NSFOCUS Fuying Lab, a global threat hunting and security research center. Maharashtra Cyber reported 1.5 million cyberattacks during this period. While most of these attacks failed to breach India’s cyber defences, the near future will witness a dramatic shift in global cyber war as quantum technologies become available that have the capacity to break any code. Concurrently, quantum cryptography has also emerged as a potent solution to build the ‘unbreakable code,’creating highly secure encryption systems.

However, experts argue that quantum technologies is a double-edged weapon that could also be used by malicious actors to break the toughest codes. They also point out that the rapid maturation of Agentic AI technology was emerging as a nearer threat factor for national, and corporate assets.

Quantum computers excel at processing large amounts of data quickly, which can enhance threat detection capabilities. While quantum-enhanced machine learning is still developing, researchers are exploring how quantum computing can speed up AI algorithms. For example, AI-driven threat detection is improving security today, and in the future, quantum computing may allow AI to analyze data more swiftly, identifying potential threats before they escalate.

Algorithmic Defense Against Quantum Threats

A couple of months ago this year the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a US Federal Agency, began selecting public-key cryptographic algorithms through a public, competition-like process to specify additional digital signature, public-key encryption, and key-establishment algorithms to enhance its defences of public infrastructure against future quantum-powered cyber threats. This just shows the seriousness of the quantum threat the world currently faces.

Quantum computers are no longer seen as a futuristic vision or a lab-project that might see tangible outcome in some distant time frame. Many scientists now believe that building large scale quantum computers to be merely a significant engineering challenge that will be solved in the not-to-distant future. This would seriously compromise the confidentiality and integrity of digital communications on the Internet and elsewhere.  The goal of post-quantum cryptography (also called quantum-resistant cryptography) is to develop cryptographic systems that are secure against both quantum and classical computers, and can interoperate with existing communications protocols and networks. 

The Rise of AI Agents

In a latest report published in MIT Technology Review AI agents are capable of planning, reasoning, and executing complex tasks like scheduling meetings, ordering groceries, or even taking over your computer to change settings on your behalf. But the same sophisticated abilities that make agents helpful assistants could also make them powerful tools for conducting cyberattacks. They could readily be used to identify vulnerable targets, hijack their systems, and steal valuable data from unsuspecting victims. 

At present, cybercriminals are not deploying AI agents to hack at scale. But researchers have demonstrated that agents are capable of executing complex attacks (Anthropic, for example, observed its Claude LLM successfully replicating an attack designed to steal sensitive information), and cybersecurity experts warn that we should expect to start seeing these types of attacks spilling over into the real world.

Cyberwar a Military Strategy

Countries at war are often targeted with cyberattacks as part of a well-recognized military strategy. Sometimes such attacks serve as a forewarning of a conventional war in the offing. In January–February 2022,Ukraine saw massive cyberattacks on its infrastructure, notably DDoS attacks on government websites and a crippling malware attack on banks.The malware attack known as “HermeticWiper” disrupted key communication systems right before Russia’s invasion on February 24, 2022.

Russian cyberattacks on Ukraine surged by nearly 70% in 2024, with 4,315 incidents targeting critical infrastructure, including government services, the energy sector, and defense-related entities. Ukraine’s cybersecurity agency reported that attackers aimed to steal sensitive data and disrupt operations, with tactics such as malware distribution, phishing, and account compromises. In January this yearcyberattacks on Taiwan by Chinese groups doubled to 2.4 million daily attempts in 2024, primarily targeting government systems and telecommunications firms, according to Taiwan’s National Security Bureau. Attackers aimed to steal sensitive data and disrupt critical infrastructure, with successful attacks rising by 20% compared to 2023. 

The US Defense Intelligence Agency in its 2025 Worldwide Threat Assessment mentioned that China-led cyberintrusions, including those by the PLA Cyberspace Force and the Ministry of State Security, are targeting information networks around the world, including US government systems, to steal intellectual property and data, and develop access into sensitive networks. The Fourth Front, which is far less expensive to wage than conventional warfare, and does not invite international mediation, will witness sharpescalation in the coming days. Countries need to recognize that they must not just prepare for today’s threat, but must shore up their defenses against technologies that are still developing.