How AI is changing the nature of cyberattacks
AI may be helping cyberattackers increase the speed and scale of their operations, but it is not yet changing their core objectives or the techniques they employ as part of their attack chains. Phishing, malware, and vulnerability exploitation remain the main techniques in play even as abuse of AI tools has made attacks easier to mount and cheaper for even relatively unskilled attackers, according to security experts. “Attackers are still identifying targets, performing reconnaissance, establishing a foothold, moving laterally, achieving their objective, covering their tracks, and moving on to the next target,” says Ronald Lewis, director of cybersecurity governance at application security firm Black Duck. “What’s changed is the volume and velocity that AI allows this process to happen.” Even in the most high-profile example of an AI powered attack to date, in which Claude Code was abused by Chinese state-sponsored actors to mount an AI-orchestrated cyber-espionage campaign in Septembe