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- In the ring of risk: the test of the alert system in the United States may coincide with the "digital apocalypse"
In the ring of risk: the test of the alert system in the United States may coincide with the "digital apocalypse"
An inspection of the national emergency warning system is scheduled for November 17 in the United States. During testing, TV and radio broadcasting will be interrupted for a short time. This test may coincide with the promised "digital apocalypse" on social media, an alleged large—scale cyberattack that, according to a spreading theory, should disrupt banks, the Internet and other digital services around the world. The authors of the rumors link the alleged operation to reports of hacks of refrigeration systems in European supermarkets, the Binance crypto exchange and medical institutions. Experts interviewed by Izvestia confirm the existence of cyber risks, however, they believe that they are primarily due to the vulnerability of digital infrastructure and the development of attack automation tools, rather than any specific date.
Where did the digital apocalypse come from
For the first time, the allegedly unprecedented COVID 2.0 hacker attack became known from a post by a user of the social network X, who referred to information from the darknet. Later, the rumor grew in new details: users linked it to a series of cybercrimes in October 2026 and the actions of mysterious hackers who committed break-ins in ten European countries. One of the arguments of the proponents of this theory was the planned testing of the American emergency warning system, which is being conducted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The very possibility of a large-scale cyberattack is real, but there is no reason to talk about a global digital collapse on November 17 yet, said Mikhail Shurygin, chairman of the ROCIT commission on cloud technologies, hosting and information security.
— Banks, payment systems, medical institutions, retail chains, and industrial enterprises depend on software, cloud platforms, and communication channels. Therefore, it is not necessary to hack thousands of organizations individually for serious consequences. Sometimes it's enough to compromise one major technology supplier, through which hundreds of companies work," the expert explained.
The cybercrime market is built on the principle of division of labor: some participants steal credentials, others sell access to corporate networks, and others carry out attacks and demand ransom, explained Alexey Leron, an independent expert in the field of artificial intelligence and information technology.
— Different operations may have common intermediaries or suppliers of tools, but this does not mean that they were organized by the same group. For such a conclusion, it is necessary to discover a common chain of resources and performers. So far, the published evidence of this connection is insufficient, the expert believes.
Igor Bederov, Chairman of the Council for Combating Technological Offenses of the Constitutional Court of the National Security Service of Russia, founder of the Internet Search company, called the story of COVID 2.0 a classic conspiracy horror story. According to him, several independent events were combined in social networks: attacks on the refrigeration equipment of European supermarkets, the theft of $6.3 billion from Binance on October 29, 2026, which the FBI attributed to the North Korean TraderTraitor group, and incidents with medical facilities. There is no evidence that the same attackers are behind them.
At the same time, disruption of refrigeration units in medicine can have direct consequences for patients. They store donated blood and plasma, organs for transplantation, vaccines and expensive drugs. The loss of such reserves can disrupt treatment, and in biobanks and laboratories it can lead to the destruction of unique samples and the results of many years of research, says Albert Rizvanov, head of the Center for Excellence "Personalized Medicine" at Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan.
In addition, digitalization of healthcare poses new risks: some medical devices, including pacemakers and insulin pumps, have wireless interfaces and remote control systems. According to him, the vulnerabilities identified in individual models could theoretically allow attackers to interfere with their work. So far, these are potential scenarios, not evidence of attacks already underway.
AI accelerates attacks, but does not create omnipotent hackers
The lack of evidence of a single source of attacks does not mean that cyber threats are exaggerated. Artificial intelligence allows you to quickly identify vulnerabilities, analyze program code, and create phishing messages. Autonomous AI agents — programs capable of performing tasks without constant human involvement — help attackers simultaneously explore more potential targets, experts say.
— What used to require high qualifications and several weeks of work, in some cases can now be done much faster, — said Mikhail Shurygin.
As an example, he cited an OpenAI study: a specialized model embedded in an automated system found hundreds of vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel and created 948 working ways to obtain administrator rights. However, there is no universal mechanism for hacking banks using AI: vulnerabilities, access to infrastructure, or the ability to circumvent security measures are still needed to get into the system.
Corporate AI assistants gain access to documents, software code, and internal tools of companies. If an attacker seizes control of such a system, he can use it to operate inside the corporate network. Therefore, it is important for banks to distinguish between the analytical capabilities of AI and the right to independently perform operations, as well as require separate confirmation of critical actions, Alexey Leron believes.
— Artificial intelligence cannot be called a prerequisite for an attack, but it can increase its effectiveness. It helps to search for vulnerabilities, automate phishing mailings and prepare messages designed to deceive users," says Denis Astafyev, founder of the SharesPro platform.
At the same time, he warned against mixing digital and physical threats: hacking the information system of a medical laboratory does not mean automatic access to biological samples stored there.
— AI enhances the capabilities of intruders, but does not guarantee successful hacking. To get in, you still need code vulnerabilities, compromised credentials, weak settings, or staff errors. AI helps to use these weaknesses more effectively, but it does not create them out of nothing," the expert emphasized.
Technology primarily speeds up the work of intruders and simplifies the search for vulnerabilities. At the same time, modern AI models have not yet become a fundamentally new tool that allows attacks that were previously impossible, says Anton Bochkarev, CEO of information security companies 3side and 4sec.
The development of autonomous agents can reduce human participation in the preparation of cyber attacks to the initial configuration of the system, says Nikita Kulikov, director of the NGO PravoRobotov, author of the book The Art of War. In the future, in his opinion, "sleeping" programs may appear that will be hidden on compromised devices and activated on command.
"Such dormant cells with AI worms and AI agents can be anywhere, even in your digital devices, and you may not even know about it," he explained.
Experts advise organizations to focus on improving the stability of their own systems: segregate corporate networks, restrict access rights, update software in a timely manner, and create backups regularly, checking whether data recovery is possible. The main risk is not related to the date set in social networks, but to the fact that the dependence of many organizations on common technology providers increases the consequences of individual hacks.
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