Key Points

The report released by cybersecurity firm Fortinet and global research agency IDC warns that AI has become a new weapon in the hands of cybercriminals, enabling them to launch faster, more sophisticated, and stealthier attacks than ever before.

The findings reveal that these AI-driven threats are not only growing in volume but also becoming increasingly difficult to detect.

Many of them exploit vulnerabilities in human behaviour, misconfigured systems, and identity management frameworks -- areas where traditional cybersecurity tools often fall short.

The most common AI-enabled threats in India include credential stuffing, brute force attacks, deepfake impersonation in business emails, AI-generated phishing scams, and polymorphic malware that keeps changing to avoid detection.

What’s more alarming is the lack of preparedness among Indian firms. Only 14 per cent of organisations say they are very confident in their ability to defend against such advanced attacks.

Meanwhile, 36 per cent admit that these AI-based threats are outpacing their ability to detect them, and 21 per cent have no systems in place to track them at all -- leaving a huge security gap across industries.

"The rise of AI in the cybercriminal toolkit is no longer a future threat -- it’s here now," said Simon Piff, Vice-President at IDC Asia-Pacific.

"Organisations need to move beyond reactive strategies and adopt predictive, intelligence-driven cybersecurity models to stay ahead," he added.

The report also finds that cyber risk has become a constant in the lives of Indian businesses, no longer limited to occasional incidents.

Attacks are now targeting cloud infrastructure, software supply chains, and zero-day vulnerabilities.

Traditional threats like phishing and ransomware still exist, but newer, more complex attacks -- such as insider threats and cloud misconfigurations -- are seen as more damaging.

Vivek Srivastava, Country Manager for India and SAARC at Fortinet, said: "AI is now both the biggest threat and the most powerful defence. Our goal is to help Indian businesses shift from scattered tools to unified, AI-driven security platforms that are built to scale and adapt."

Rashish Pandey, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Fortinet Asia & ANZ, added that the focus is now shifting from just infrastructure to more strategic priorities like identity security, cyber resilience, and access control.

- IANS