Defenders need to rethink their approach: While Xbow is now besting human red-teamers, and at a rapid clip, defenders still have a long way to go to keep up with the onslaught of AI-perpetrated attacks, experts say.”Hackers are quickly adopting new tools that allow them to move faster, hit harder, and target more precisely than ever before,” said Erik Avakian, technical counselor at Info-Tech Research Group.He noted that automated systems are not only launching attacks at scale, but crafting highly convincing fake content, including voice, video, and emails, that “blur the line between what’s real and what’s not.” This represents a “leap” in capability, as opposed to just a step forward.”Security teams are no longer just defending against individuals behind keyboards,” said Avakian. “They’re up against a system or a team that can scan, exploit, and adapt in near real time.”Automating discovery can also, paradoxically, introduce dangers, noted Beauceron’s Shipley. “Further speeding up exploit discovery and use will lead to more data breaches, ransomware incidents, and critical infrastructure disruption,” he said.Ultimately, this is going to shove the gas pedal down on an “already extremely difficult scenario” for defenders, who today still aren’t able to keep up with the demands for patching software, said Shipley. He lamented that one long-term solution to this threat was US President Joe Biden’s executive orders around cybersecurity, but those have since been gutted by the Trump administration.In this shifting landscape, Avakian urged defenders to rethink how they prepare. “It’s no longer enough to rely on manual monitoring or traditional tools,” he said, noting that organizations need to work with partners and vendors who have built tools to detect and respond at machine speed, and across all layers of the enterprise environment.Organizations also need structure, not just tools, including a well-defined security roadmap with clear policies and risk protocols, he said. Training is equally critical.”Teams that understand how these new technologies work and how attackers are using them will be better positioned to respond with speed and confidence,” said Avakian. “This shift isn’t coming; it’s already here.”
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