Shermatov was commenting on claims by the hacker group Butterfly, which recently alleged that personal data belonging to 27 million people in Uzbekistan could be exposed. The minister neither confirmed the alleged breach nor endorsed the figure cited by the group, which describes itself as a team of ethical hackers.
“Alongside investing in artificial intelligence, it is essential to allocate sufficient resources to protecting against the threats associated with it. If such spending is treated as an unnecessary expense in AI development, the risks will only increase,” Shermatov said.
He also referred to a recent incident involving cryptocurrency exchange Binance, in which more than $6.3 billion was reportedly stolen, and criticized what Butterfly described as inaction by cybersecurity specialists at Uzbekistan's government agencies.
The group said it had not hacked systems or leaked data itself, but had sought to demonstrate that such an attack was possible. According to its statement, its members compiled information from previous alleged data breaches – none of which had been officially confirmed – and published Shermatov's personal phone number.
“The fact that the alleged leak has not spread further so far is no guarantee that something similar will not happen tomorrow unless urgent measures are taken,” the minister warned.
Shermatov also pointed to the growing role of AI in identifying vulnerabilities in outdated information systems. Referring to data visualized using Google's Gemini AI model, he said the number of vulnerabilities being detected had increased several times since 2020.
He called on public institutions, private organizations and businesses to regularly identify and promptly address security vulnerabilities in their systems.
Given the sharp increase in cyber risks, organizations responsible for developing and operating information systems should allocate additional funding for cybersecurity and invest in training qualified specialists, he said.
The minister urged IT professionals to follow alerts issued by the State Security Service's Cybersecurity Center and the national incident response service UzCERT, and to promptly address vulnerabilities identified in their systems.
“Otherwise, as digitalization and artificial intelligence continue to advance, the threats will only grow,” Shermatov said.
