Upswing in AI-powered cyberattacks, extortion expected next year

SiliconANGLE reports that cybersecurity threats powered by artificial intelligence and extortion will further escalate in the coming year.

More threat actors are poised to adopt AI in social engineering, impersonation, and malware attacks, according to Google Cloud Security's Cybersecurity Forecast 2026 report. Intrusions involving prompt injection are also expected to increase amid growing corporate adoption of large language models. Organizations are also warned of the threat of shadow AI agents, which should prompt improved AI security governance.

Additional findings predict the ransomware, data theft, and multifaceted extortion trifecta to inflict the most financial damage on organizations next year. Researchers have also noted the looming threat posed by virtualization infrastructure due to systematic flaws.

"While threat actors will leverage Al to escalate the speed, scope, and effectiveness of attacks, defenders will also harness Al agents to supercharge security operations and enhance analyst capabilities," said the report, which called for multi-layered defense tactics and increased AI governance investment.