Did you know that artificial intelligence is not only transforming the way we work, but also how we protect ourselves… and how we are attacked? In this article, we examine the AI cyber threats affecting critical sectors in 2025, ranging from hyper-realistic deepfakes to autonomous malware. Discover why this evolution necessitates a radical shift in digital defense strategies.
What are AI cyber threats?
AI cyber threats refer to attacks that use artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to automate, optimize, and scale malicious activities. Unlike traditional attacks, these are:
- Adaptive: They learn from existing defenses and evade them.
- Massive: They can be executed on a global scale with minimal resources.
- Hyper-realistic: They generate convincing content (text, voice, video) to deceive humans and systems.
3 Types of AI attacks that are dominating in 2025
1. Deepfakes for advanced social engineering
- How they work: They use generative adversarial networks (GANs) to create audiovisual impersonations of executives, technicians, or family members.
- Affected sectors: In the healthcare sector, hospitals receive fake “voice commands” to access medical records.
2. Autonomous malware with reinforcement learning
- How they work: Malware that uses reinforcement learning algorithms to move laterally across networks, evading firewalls and antivirus software.
- Examples:
AI.Ransom: Adapts its encryption methods according to the infrastructure being attacked.
AI botnets: Networks of IoT devices that coordinate attacks without human control.
3. Data poisoning attacks
- How they work: They corrupt the data sets used to train AI models, leading to erroneous decisions.
- Real-world examples:
Automotive sector: Autonomous vehicles misinterpret traffic signals due to contaminated data.
Cybersecurity: Intrusion detection systems generated false negatives after being poisoned.
Sectors targeted by AI cyber threats: Real-life cases
1. Financial sector: Attack on ICBC Financial Services (2023)
- What happened: The LockBit ransomware group attacked ICBC Financial Services (a subsidiary of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China), exploiting a vulnerability in third-party software.
- Use of AI: The attackers used automation algorithms to scale the ransomware and evade detection, while AI-powered phishing techniques mimicked legitimate communications to deceive employees.
2. Healthcare sector: Hospital ransomware (2024)
- What happened: Several hospitals in the United Kingdom were paralyzed by ransomware that encrypted critical systems, affecting patient care services. The attackers demanded high ransoms to unlock the systems.
- Use of AI: Audio deepfakes were used to impersonate hospital authorities and request privileged access, combined with autonomous malware that spread laterally across networks.
3. Technology Sector: Attack on Microsoft (2024)
- What happened: Hackers exploited a critical vulnerability in Azure (CVE-2024-21410), compromising high-level executive accounts and leaking credentials using NTLM spoofing techniques. The incident affected hundreds of cloud accounts.
- Use of AI: Generation of hyper-realistic phishing with AI to deceive employees and automation tools to escalate privileges on Exchange servers.
Future trends (2025-2026)
- Multi-stage autonomous attacks: Malware that plans and executes campaigns without human intervention.
- Malicious code generation with LLMs: Tools like WormGPT can create customized exploits in minutes.
- AI vs. AI: Hackers use generative models to deceive AI-based defense systems.
You might be interested in: AI digital asset management: The future of cybersecurity
Conclusion: The double-edged sword of AI in cybersecurity
AI cyber threats represent a turning point: static patches or firewalls are no longer enough. Effective defense requires:
- Continuous monitoring of anomalous behavior (never seen before).
- Industry collaboration to share threat intelligence in real time.
- Constant education, as the human link, remains critical.
Do you know how vulnerable your organization is to AI cyber threats?
Schedule a free 30-minute consultation with our team. We will help you understand your risks before attackers do.
