AI in Cybersecurity: The Double-Edged Sword Every Business Must Understand
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has rapidly moved from experimental technology to mainstream adoption. For businesses, AI promises efficiency, productivity, and innovation. But for cyber criminals, it offers something else entirely: a new arsenal of tools to attack faster, scale wider, and deceive more convincingly than ever before.
The State of AI Cyber Security Report (2025) highlights a stark reality: AI is now central to both offence and defence in the cyber battlefield. Threat actors are exploiting it to automate attacks, while security teams are scrambling to adapt and harness AI themselves to protect their organisations.
At CHI Technology, we see this as the defining cyber security challenge of the next decade. Businesses need to understand the risks, opportunities, and urgent need for AI-aware strategies.
How Cyber Criminals Are Exploiting AI
AI has levelled the playing field for attackers. What once required technical skill, time, and resources can now be automated with AI tools available on the dark web.
AI-Powered Social Engineering
Social engineering has always been the easiest way to compromise an organisation—but now AI is supercharging it. Attackers can generate deepfake text, audio, and video that convincingly impersonates executives, suppliers, or even family members.
- In 2024, a British engineering firm lost £20 million when criminals used live deepfake video to impersonate senior executives during a Teams call, tricking an employee into transferring funds.
- AI voice-cloning tools, using just minutes of online audio, are already behind kidnap and emergency scams, where panicked parents have transferred money after receiving AI-generated calls of their child in distress.
The days when a misspelled phishing email gave attackers away are over. Now, their messages and conversations can be flawless—culturally nuanced, personalised, and convincing in real time.
The Rise of “Dark” AI Models
While businesses use mainstream AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot, criminals are creating their own unrestricted versions.
- WormGPT, marketed as the “ultimate hacking AI,” generates phishing emails, malware, and fraud scripts without ethical safeguards.
- Other variants like FraudGPT, HackerGPT, and GhostGPT are being openly sold on Telegram and dark web marketplaces.
These dark AI services turn cyber crime into a subscription model—complete with customer support, updates, and “premium features.”
Targeting AI Itself
AI services are now targets in their own right. Stolen ChatGPT accounts and API keys are widely traded, allowing attackers to:
- Bypass usage limits (e.g., ChatGPT Plus).
- Operate anonymously.
- Generate malicious content undetected.
Credential stuffing attacks, phishing, and info-stealer malware are fuelling a thriving underground economy for stolen AI access.
Malware at Machine Speed
Attackers no longer need to write code manually. AI is helping them create and refine malware with minimal knowledge.
- The ransomware group FunkSec admitted that at least 20% of their operations are AI-powered.
- Infostealer malware families are using AI to mine stolen data at scale, sorting through millions of credentials to identify the most valuable victims for follow-up attacks.
The result? Attacks that are faster, more scalable, and increasingly difficult for traditional defences to stop.
The Risks for Businesses Embracing AI
It’s not just attackers weaponising AI — organisations themselves are opening new vulnerabilities as AI tools embed into everyday work.
Shadow AI
Employees are adopting AI tools without IT oversight. From translation apps to online AI writing assistants, these “shadow AI” applications create blind spots, exposing sensitive data to unknown third parties.
Data Leakage
Check Point’s research found that:
- 1 in 80 AI prompts (1.25%) contained high-risk sensitive data.
- 1 in 13 prompts (7.5%) contained potentially sensitive information.
Whether it’s financial figures, customer details, or internal strategy documents, once information is shared with public AI tools, control is lost.
Emerging Vulnerabilities
AI-generated code is already introducing new risks. Hidden bugs, poisoned datasets, and unverified outputs can slip into business applications, creating backdoors for attackers.
Excessive Autonomy
Advanced “agentic” AI systems can act independently—executing tasks, running workflows, and making decisions. While powerful, these systems are also highly vulnerable to manipulation through prompt injection or poisoned data. Without human oversight, the consequences could be serious.
AI as a Defence: Fighting Fire with Fire
Fortunately, AI is not just an attacker’s tool—it’s also one of the most powerful defences available to businesses.
Smarter Detection
AI-driven security platforms can process billions of data points, identifying anomalies and threats in real time. From spotting suspicious domains that mimic government sites to detecting unusual behaviour on a user’s account, AI dramatically improves visibility.
Faster Response
AI assistants and copilots help IT and security teams automate routine tasks, from policy creation to log analysis, freeing up valuable time for incident response and strategy.
Proactive Defence
AI can also be used to predict attacks — automating vulnerability research, simulating exploit attempts, and running continuous testing. What was once manual and time-consuming is now scalable and efficient.
What This Means for Your IT Strategy
The rise of AI in cyber security isn’t something businesses can ignore. It will shape every element of your IT strategy—from data governance to employee training, from risk management to tool selection.
To stay resilient, organisations must:
- Audit their AI use – Identify both approved and shadow AI applications across the business.
- Implement governance – Establish clear policies for AI use, covering data handling, compliance, and risk controls.
- Adopt AI-powered security solutions – From threat detection to response automation, AI must be embedded into the defence stack.
- Educate staff – People remain the first line of defence. Training employees to recognise AI-driven scams is critical.
At CHI Technology, we work with IT teams to ensure AI is a force multiplier for defence, not a vulnerability waiting to be exploited. Our approach combines cyber threat assessments, governance frameworks, and cutting-edge AI-enabled security tools to give businesses confidence in the face of evolving threats.
The Bottom Line
AI is no longer emerging — it’s here, and it’s redefining cyber security. For businesses, the challenge is twofold: defend against AI-driven threats while safely leveraging AI’s benefits.
The takeaway is simple:
- AI will be used against you.
- It must also be part of your defence.
The future of cyber security belongs to those who adapt, harnessing AI not just to keep up with attackers, but to stay ahead of them.
If you’d like to understand how AI is impacting your business security, CHI Technology can deliver a Cyber Threat Assessment tailored to your environment—highlighting risks, blind spots, and strategies to keep your IT future-proof.
