Year in Review: AI based threats

2024 wasn’t the year that AI rewrote the cybercrime playbook — but it did turbocharge some of the old tricks. In Cisco Talos’ 2024 Year in Review, with the help of our friends at Robust Intelligence (now a Cisco company), we dissect how cybercriminals used generative AI to scale up social engineering, fine-tune phishing, and automate grunt work like OSINT gathering.

So while AI didn’t completely rock the threat landscape last year, the groundwork is being laid for 2025, where agentic AI and automated vulnerability hunting could cause some significant challenges for defenders. Our research showcases the top four areas of concern for the coming year.

Curious about how AI could impact your defenses — or your data — this year? Take a look at this summary of AI-based threats:

AI based threats summary

From the two main ways that threat actors leveraged AI last year, to predictions for 2025.

2024YiR AI threats.pdf

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Need a 60 second summary? Take a look at this video:

Download Talos’ 2024 Year in Review.

Also check out Cisco’s State of AI Security report.

Cisco Talos Blog – Read More