Hackers Are Automating Cyberattacks With AI. Defenders Are Using It to Fight Back.

Cybersecurity is an endless game of cat and mouse as attackers and defenders refine their tools. Generative AI systems are now joining the fray on both sides of the battlefield.

Though cybersecurity experts and model developers have been warning about potential AI-powered cyberattacks for years, there has been limited evidence hackers were widely exploiting the technology. But that is starting to change.

Growing evidence shows hackers now routinely use the technology to turbocharge their search for vulnerabilities, develop new code exploits, and scale phishing campaigns. At the same time, AI firms are building defensive security measures directly into foundation models to keep pace with attackers.

As cybersecurity becomes more automated, corporations will be forced to rapidly adapt as they grapple with the security of their products and systems in the age of AI.

A recent report by Amazon security researchers highlighted the growing sophistication of hackers’ AI use. The researchers wrote that Russian-speaking attackers used multiple commercially available generative AI services to plan, manage, and conduct cyberattacks on organizations with misconfigured firewalls in over 55 countries this January and February.

The attack targeted more than 600 systems protected by FortiGate firewalls and worked by scanning for internet-exposed login pages—these are essentially front doors leading into private company networks—and attempting to access them with commonly reused security credentials. Once inside, they extracted credential databases and targeted backup infrastructure. This activity suggests they may have been planning a ransomware attack.

The researchers report the attack was largely unsuccessful but nonetheless highlighted how much AI can lower the barrier to large-scale attacks. Despite being relative amateurs, the group “achieved an operational scale that would have previously required a significantly larger and more skilled team,” they wrote.

In the most vivid demonstration of AI’s hacking potential, a research prototype created by a New York University researcher known as PromptLock used large language models to create an entirely autonomous ransomware attack.

The malware used AI to generate custom code in real time, scour the target system for sensitive data, and write personalized ransom notes based on what it found. While the tool was only a proof of concept, it highlighted the mounting threat of fully automated malware attacks.

A recent report from security firm CrowdStrike found that AI is also making attackers significantly more nimble. They discovered that average breakout times—the window between when an attacker first breaches a network and when they move into other systems—fell to just 29 minutes in 2025, 65 percent faster than in 2024.