How the U.S. Can Survive a Large-Scale AI Cyberattack

Published by CSIS on 23 July 2026 (author Andrew Faulhaber), this analysis argues that advances in offensive AI cyber capabilities are outpacing U.S. defensive readiness and lays out a framework for whole-of-society cyber resilience ahead of a major AI-driven cyberattack. It recommends that CISA act as national coordinator during a cyber emergency, calls for a dedicated Unified Coordination Group (UCG) operations center with standing representation from CISA, DOE, FBI, the military and intelligence community, and argues that interoperability between these bodies now will determine the coherence of the U.S. response to a future large-scale incident.

Gives CISOs and national-security policy teams a concrete institutional blueprint (UCG operations center, cross-agency interoperability) to benchmark against public-private incident response planning for AI-enabled cyber incidents.

Review incident-response playbooks against the proposed UCG coordination model and confirm points of contact with CISA/sector-specific agencies for AI-cyberattack scenarios.