1 in 2 people believe AI will enable hackers to launch more attacks

New Delhi: One in two (50 per cent) people believe Artificial Intelligence (AI) will enable hackers to launch more attacks, a new report has said.

According to cloud-enabled security solutions provider Barracuda Network, about 71 per cent of respondents had experienced a ransomware attack over the last year, and 61 per cent paid the ransom.

"Proactive monitoring and attack detection to prevent progression to more severe stages like data exfiltration or ransomware is key. By preparing for these scenarios today, organisations can significantly reduce the impact and cost of these incidents," said Fleming Shi, CTO, Barracuda.

The report surveyed a total of 1,917 IT security practitioners in the US (522), the UK (372), France (329), Germany (425), and Australia (269) in September 2023.

The final sample of respondents represented enterprises with a headcount between 100 and 5,000.

Moreover, the report noted that the average annual cost to respond to compromises was $5.34 million.

A majority (57 per cent) of respondents reported their organisations suffered one or more cyberattacks in the last 12 months.

About 48 per cent said their organisations suffered a data breach in the last 12 months and lost, on average, 340,267 individual records.

Among the wide variety of attack types, respondents said their organisations experienced, denial of service (52 per cent), phishing/social engineering (48 per cent), and credential theft (41 per cent) ranked as the three most common.

“Hackers follow a similar path, but instead of beginning with researching products for potential purchase, they begin by discovering thousands of potential targets. Then they move down the funnel to identify those targets with vulnerabilities they can exploit, launch their attacks, and finally, reap their rewards," the report said.

While more than half (54 per cent) of respondents said attackers’ increased use of AI or GenAI will require new approaches to securing the organisation, only 39 per cent believe their security infrastructure is adequately equipped to protect against GenAI-powered security attacks.