Not unlike the fictional Skynet sending increasingly sophisticated ‘Terminators’ as older versions of the monster failed to achieve their earthly missions, cyberattacks are growing more persistent and automated, further testing an organization’s security maturity. To stay in tune with future risks, it has become imperative to treat resilience as an operational objective in constant flux.
Emerging Threats And Building Resilience
1. Artificial Intelligence
AI is playing both sides of the fence, arming attackers and defenders alike. AI is automating key kill chain components like reconnaissance and vulnerability scanning, compressing time-to-exploit from days to mere hours. Expect phishing emails to be more contextual and convincing; voice and video deepfakes will be more difficult to distinguish from the real thing, as will synthetic identities (fake profiles) built on real and stolen information. This is hardly a case of fear mongering. In May 2026, scammers used AI-generated deepfakes to concoct a Zoom meeting impersonating Singapore’s prime minister, defrauding a business professionalSGD 4.9 million.
Mitigate AI-Driven Attacks: Organizations should take stock of existing security tools and consider mothballing those that cannot keep pace with AI-driven attacks. To state the obvious, AI attacks should be addressed with AI defenses, especially AI-based detection capabilities that catch anomalies early, before the attack fully unfolds. Also strengthen incident management, since some attacks will inevitably get through.
2. Third Parties and Supply Chains
A typical organization is supported by a web of vendors, cloud providers, and other close partners. A breach in any one of these parties can have a domino effect on operations. Attackers hide behind backdoors in vendor software and exploit unmanaged apps and APIs. This software is already running inside the organization’s own systems, so the backdoor wears a cloak of trust as opposed to being an external intrusion. Unmanaged APIs exploit a similar opening, as a vendor platform already has permission to access systems directly. The fallout of such an intrusion is not restricted to the primary organization alone. It spreads its tentacles across the larger supply network. This is evident from a cyberattack on Australian manufacturer Mackay Sugar. The direct impact was that it shut down two mills and forced 1,300 farms to pause harvesting.