NHS England is pulling its open-source software from the internet because of fears around computer-hacking AI models like Mythos.
A decision by NHS England to withdraw open-source code created with UK taxpayer funds because of the risk posed by computer-hacking AI models is attracting growing backlash.potentially allowing hackers to break into systems running it.
NHS England has now told staff that existing and future software must be pulled from public view and kept behind closed doors by 11 May because of this risk. The decision goes against the NHS service standard, which requires that staff make any software they produce open-source so that tools can be built upon, improved and used without the need for duplicated effort.
And experts say that withdrawing code from public sight will do nothing to improve security.calling on NHS England to reverse its decision is attracting hundreds of signatures. At the time of writing, 682 people have signed the letter, including author and digital rights campaigner“One of the smartest things the NHS has done in recent years is open-source its code. Taxpayers paid for it, so taxpayers should benefit from it,” wrote Hancock.
“But the practical case is just as strong: open source code is more rigorously tested, more secure, and allows the best minds anywhere in the world to build on top of it. ”at the University of Edinburgh, UK, is a co-author of the open letter. He has access to Mythos and was part of a group that recently used it to scan open-source NHS code for vulnerabilities.
They found “a few relatively severe vulnerabilities” that were responsibly disclosed to the NHS prior to the decision to pull open-source projects.
“I don’t know that the vulnerabilities we reported were the impetus for this, but it was probably part of it,” says Harbuz. “Regular security audits and publicly available can find the same vulnerabilities we found. Mythos makes things a bit less labour-intensive. But the real problem is a systemic underinvestment in cybersecurity, which has been the case before Mythos even existed.
”Harbuz thinks that backups of all NHS code will still exist and be used to train a variety of AI models, but that pulling them from GitHub stops experts who care about the quality and security of public services from contributing.
“Iinvestigated Mythos and found it to be capable of attacking only “small, weakly defended and vulnerable enterprise systems”, concluding there was no indication that a really secure network or piece of software would be at risk. , who has extensive experience in the UK Civil Service working on opening access to public data, agrees that the move makes no logical sense.
“People’s faith in the NHS depends upon the health service being open, transparent and honest. Given how much of our health care relies on digital tools, that means open-source is non-negotiable. We have a right to see how these tools work. I strongly urge the NHS to respond positively to the petition and to keep their promises to the community,” says Eden.
: “We are temporarily restricting access to some NHS England source code to further strengthen cybersecurity while we assess the impact of rapid developments in AI models. We will continue to publish source code where there is a clear need. ”
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