Threat actors stories
Data theft and repeat extortion are hitting Australian businesses harder as AI helps attackers make ransomware lures more convincing.
Identity-led attacks are speeding up intrusions, with LevelBlue finding business email compromise accounted for 45 per cent of incidents in Q2 2026.
Frontier AI is lowering the bar for cybercrime, with attackers using it to scale phishing, malware and reconnaissance more quickly.
Cloud, AI and hybrid work are pushing system administrators into frontline risk management as phishing threats become harder to spot.
Proofpoint says underground forums are advertising tools that use indirect prompt injection across emails, PDFs, calendar invites and web pages.
Security teams could cut incident response from hours to minutes as Team Cymru folds telemetry, investigation and AI access into one platform.
The Milan-founded startup plans to expand in Rome and San Francisco as it targets European firms facing tighter NIS2 cybersecurity rules.
Manufacturers faced the heaviest ransomware pressure as AI tools and faster intrusions left defenders with less time to react.
Email fraud is now the top incident type, accounting for 45% of cases as attackers bypass multi-factor authentication with stolen credentials.
Most firms still depend on manual endpoint workflows, even as they plan to step up AI spending and struggle with slow patching and poor visibility.
Defenders will see clearer attribution at a glance as Google Threat Intelligence Group replaces rival cyber-actor labels with two-word cryptonyms.
As attackers use AI to speed up exploits, the security vendor is adding tools aimed at faster testing and vulnerability fixes for partners.
Security teams are racing to shrink exposure windows as AI makes newly disclosed vulnerabilities exploitable almost immediately.
AI-driven attacks are leaving firms with less time to spot and stop breaches, pushing security teams towards round-the-clock monitoring.
AI is shrinking the gap between vulnerability disclosure and real-world exploitation to hours, forcing security teams to adapt fast.
AI-driven phishing and state-linked espionage are pushing Asia-Pacific incident numbers higher, with data breaches still the biggest threat.
Security teams can now pull threat intelligence into existing AI workflows, reducing manual analysis across fragmented data and incident investigations.
In Singapore, 68% of ransomware-hit organisations said AI made attacks more effective, as phishing and impersonation drove most incidents.
Mid-market firms in financial, insurance and consulting services face the highest ransomware risk, with attacks now striking faster and costing far more.
Ransomware attacks spread through vendor systems and AI-aided tactics, leaving 7,551 publicly disclosed victims in the latest 12-month period.