IBM Report: AI Cyberattacks Surge 56% Year-Over-Year, One-Quarter of Malicious Intrusion Incidents Facilitated by AI

TechFlow news, July 30, according to Yonhap News Agency, IBM released the "2026 Cost of a Data Breach Report" on July 30. The report shows that 25% of global malicious cyber infringement incidents were implemented with the aid of AI, a 56% increase from the previous year. Main attack methods include deepfake impersonation and AI-driven malicious code. The average loss for AI-related infringement incidents reached $6 million, approximately $1 million higher than the average of $4.99 million for all infringement incidents.

It is worth noting that 62% of AI attacks are concentrated in the critical infrastructure sector. The average loss in the financial services industry is $6.3 million, while it is $5.2 million for the energy industry. On the defense side, enterprises that actively adopt AI and automated security operations can save approximately $2 million in losses on average. 85% of enterprises stated they plan to increase security investment to cope with new-generation AI threats.