Microsoft says attackers are currently getting more out of artificial intelligence than the security teams defending against them. In its 2026 Digital Defense Report, the company says AI is cutting the time, skill and cost needed to find and exploit software vulnerabilities, and that flaws are now being discovered faster than they can be fixed. The gap between a vulnerability being found in the wild and being turned into a working attack has dropped to well under 24 hours, and activity after a break-in that once took days can now take minutes.
The report says Chinese groups are using AI for vulnerability research, Russian groups for generating tools and code, and North Korean groups for fake personas, social engineering, malware and infrastructure, including deepfake video in fake IT worker schemes. Microsoft notes that most real campaigns still need human direction and that fully autonomous attacks remain rare. It expects the balance to even out eventually but says defenders must move quickly to close the gap.
Source: Read the full story at BleepingComputer
This summary was written with AI assistance from the linked source.
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