Cybersecurity

How AI makes cyberattacks smarter and more efficient

AI did not invent cybercrime, but it automated it, scaled it and made it more precise. Attacks that once required hours or days of manual preparation can now be assembled in minutes and tailored to a single, specific target.

The technology does not change what attackers do. It mainly changes how fast and how accurately they can do it.

In this blog, you will learn how this shift works and why organisations need to adjust their security strategy to keep up with this new reality.

How AI has fundamentally changed the attack landscape

Where cybercriminals once needed a lot of time and manual expertise, they can now generate complex attacks with minimal effort thanks to AI.

AI can analyse large volumes of information, identify weaknesses more quickly and adjust attacks automatically when something fails. As a result, cyberattacks are harder to detect and appear much more credible.

Three evolutions stand out in particular and define how today’s threat landscape is changing:

1. Deepfake phishing: personalised and highly convincing

Phishing emails are now generated and personalised at high speed with AI tools. Attackers use models that:

copy the writing style of CEOs or employees
generate realistic deepfake audio (“Can you quickly approve this payment?”)
pull context from public sources such as LinkedIn

The result: phishing that looks legitimate, is difficult to recognise and is extremely effective.

2. AI-generated malware and automated pentesting

AI kan bestaande malwarevarianten creëren die aangepaste signatures hebben, waardoor traditionele antivirus het niet meer herkent.

AI can create new variants of existing malware with modified signatures, which means traditional antivirus tools no longer recognise them.

Cybercriminals also use AI to:

scan networks for vulnerabilities
crack passwords
generate scripts tailored to a specific target environment

The result: attacks that used to take two or three days of preparation are now executed within minutes.

3. Advanced social engineering at scale

AI can analyse enormous amounts of data and use it to build hyper-relevant attacks.

Examples include:

messages crafted specifically for one individual
convincing conversations via chatbots
flawless automatic translations that remove classic phishing red flags

The result: technology and psychology combine at a level businesses have never faced before.

Conclusion

AI makes the cyber landscape more challenging, but it is certainly not all bad news. The same technology attackers use to become faster and smarter can just as effectively be used by organisations to stay ahead of them.

In the blog “You can’t defend without AI anymore: this is what modern protection really looks like” we explain how AI strengthens your defence and helps your security posture evolve with modern threats.