Moody’s predicts greater cyber risk due to use of AI

Cyber ​​risk will increase in 2026 as attackers exploit increasingly effective artificial intelligence (AI) tools, Moody’s said.

“While AI attacks are still in their infancy, early signs point to platforms capable of launching large-scale automated attacks and the use of malware (malware) that dynamically adapts to evade detection,” he warned.

For their part, defenders use AI tools to identify vulnerabilities before adversaries can exploit them.

“As technology advances, the continuous strategic game between attackers and defenders will intensify,” the firm noted in its analysis “Outlook 2026: Cyber ​​threats will intensify as AI tools proliferate.”

Moody’s predicted that the use of AI will be a growing threat to organizations in 2026.

“Over the past few months, AI has expanded existing cyberattack techniques rather than introducing new ones, made phishing campaigns more convincing, and enabled scams” ​​through digital image spoofing (deepfake).

While the industry consensus is that no major breaches have yet to be fully attributed to AI, as attacks become faster and more scalable, companies that do not invest in AI-based defenses will become increasingly vulnerable.

Advances in this technology suggest that in the coming years, attackers will be able to use malware that rewrites their own code, exploits previously unknown security flaws, and launches automated campaigns against thousands of targets simultaneously.

“A growing concern is the use of AI to automate the discovery of vulnerabilities, by continuously monitoring networks and applications for flaws, such as missing patches or incorrect configurations, at a scale and speed that exceed the ability of defenders to remediate them,” since the correction usually requires tools, as well as prolonged planning and execution, the institution warned.