eSecurity Solutions Articles/Blog
Where will AI Threats come from?
AI will be the cause of two types of cyber security threats and attacks in 2026 and beyond. This means that companies will need two types of cyber security solutions for AI.
1. Criminals will Use AI to Discover, Create & Deliver New Zero-Day Attacks
24×7 AI leveraging security-focused LLMs are already discovering high quantities of unknown security vulnerabilities. Many of these are zero-day vulnerabilities that can be leveraged into automated malware code development. The advent of new Crime-as-a-Service (CaaS) kits will enable the next wave of democratized high-volume attacks on all sized companies.
These new zero-day attacks will likely be the highest impact attacks to come from AI and these attacks will be perpetuated on all sized companies and manifest themselves into the the second big zero-day/ransomware attack wave.
These attacks will cause smaller businesses to migrate their security to compliance-level security or suffer breaches.
2. New AI Specific Usage Threats
AI usage threats and attacks are the ones that most people think of as the biggest concerns from AI. They will likely be the second most important AI threats that companies must protect themselves against. These threats are the most obvious AI threats to protect against. Both AI companies and cyber security companies will offer security to protect companies from these new AI usage security risks.
The following AI use cases will require AI specific security
- Employee AI LLM usage
- AI agent security for developers
- AI environment run-time & access control security
- AI Posture Management
AI Attack Anatomy
In 2026 sophisticated cyber security threat actors will successfully leverage AI for Automated:
- Vulnerability discovery & reconnaissance
- Malware code development & execution
- Deep fake personas (media, videos, websites, identities)
- Defense evasion
- Social engineering vulnerability discovery & attacks
- Post-exploitation activities
AI companies like Anthropic’s Mythos and Glasswing and Google Gemini and others are already proving that today’s LLMs and AI agent can automate these security related activities and do them quickly, cheaply and with very dangerous results.
AI Automated Vulnerability Discovery
AI-automated vulnerability discovery Is becoming the new normal. Zero-day vulnerability discovery is occurring at machine speed. Vulnerabilities are now being identified by AI-powered code analysis tools designed to identify risky patterns in software.
AI is now being used for automated vulnerability discovery using multiple discovery methods:
- Analyze massive codebases for security flaws
- Detect insecure patterns in authentication logic
- Web data scraping to gather data for personalized attacks
- Other automated discovery
This highlights an accelerating shift in cybersecurity threats. The barrier to entry for finding new zero-day vulnerabilities is rapidly disappearing.
AI Attack Creation
Once discovered, these AI LLMs can be asked to provide step-by-step methods to exploit these vulnerabilities. These exploits can be used by automated Crime-as-a-Service (CaaS) attack kits that virtually any cybercriminal can buy to deploy mass attacks on any company.
AI Attack Automation using CaaS
Crime-as-a-Service (CaaS) attack kits, lower the technical barrier for new attackers by offering plug-and-play services for hacking, identity theft, fraud, and more. These tools are being offered on dark web platforms for monthly fees, often with documentation, customer support, and real-time updates — mirroring legitimate SaaS models.
Now, with the integration of AI and machine learning, CaaS has grown more powerful — making threats more scalable and dangerous. The commercialization of these tools has lowered the barrier to entry.
Here are a few CaaS products available:
- AI-Penetration Testing Bots: Malicious actors/ rent bots on the dark web that scan for vulnerabilities and launch precision strikes.
- AI-Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS): Automated platforms that identify high-value targets, customize ransom demands based on the victim’s financial situation, and use AI chatbots to handle negotiations.
- AI-Powered Phishing Kits: Generate highly personalized spear-phishing emails in bulk using generative AI (e.g., GPT-based).
- AI Voice Cloning Kits: Clone voices for future impersonation attacks. Market price: As low as $200/month with custom voice models. Advanced features: Real-time text-to-voice streaming to manipulate live calls.
- Deepfake-as-a-Service: Creation of fake videos of politicians, executives, or influencers to spread disinformation or blackmail. Delivery time: 12–72 hours per custom video. Add-ons: Verified social media manipulation or “viralization” of content.
What Companies Need to Protect against AI Attacks
AI Discovered & Zero-Day Attacks
- Protect employee users, code developers and AI agent run-time environments.
- Enhanced corporate cyber security to protect against an onslaught of new AI discovered zero-day and other security attacks.
Protecting Against AI Specific Threats
AI environments will have security provided by:
- AI Tool makers (Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and others)
- Cyber security companies will protect some or all of these either specifically (like with browser security) or as part of the company’s overall cyber security solution.
6 Solutions for AI-Driven Zero-Day Attacks
Compliance-Level Security Should be the New Standard for All Companies
Companies need to migrate their security to compliance-level security to withstand the expected onslaught of new zero-day attacks and resulting ransomware. This is the biggest action item from the expected impact of AI-enabled attacks. This means getting 3rd party risk assessments, prioritizing security gaps, and investing in security solutions that are needed to be compliant.
1. Adopt Single Vendor Security Platforms w/AI-Enabled XDR & Broad Security Lines
The only way to achieve the best possible security is for companies to standardize on a single security vendor platform. Security vendors offering AI-focused, XDR-capable security will provide the best protection against AI-enabled attacks. XDR enables cross solution coordination when detecting and responding to attacks. Your security partners need to have broad security product lines to make XDR more valuable.
2. Real-Time Zero-Day Protection (Including Virtual Patching)
Combining strong detect and respond security solutions along with virtual patching provides the best protection from zero-day attacks. This requires ongoing real-time threat data from security platforms.
3. Zero Trust Architectures & SASE Security Solutions
Zero trust solutions including strong access control and SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) provide the optimum security in an environment where company assets are increasingly in the cloud. Remote employees, cloud applications, cloud servers and even cloud partners require SASE security solutions to provide adequate company security.
4. Protect, Detect & Respond Security
The need to increase company security in light of AI-enabled attacks means upgrading from defensive-only security to security that also monitors, detects and responds to attacks. Solutions like EDR, NDR, and MDR provide detect and respond solutions for endpoint and network traffic as well as overall security respectively.
5. Top Level MDR Solutions
MDR deserves to be called out as a necessary detect and respond solution. A top-level MDR solution (generally SIEM based) to monitor all your security and key IT is needed to provide a big picture of threats and attacks. These MDR solutions leverage AI to formulate appropriate remediation as well.
6. AI Specific Security Solutions to Protect Against AI User Threats
As already discussed, there are at least 3 types of AI specific security solutions that are already being deployed to protect against user- centric AI security threats from:
- AI employee tool usage
- AI agent security for developers
- AI environment run-time & access control security
- AI posture management
These security solutions are being provided by both AI LLM/tool companies like Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, 3rd party AI focused companies as well as cybersecurity solution companies (such as TrendAI, Fortinet, WatchGuard, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto). It is likely that securing AI usage will heavily rely on AI LLM and tool companies. Cybersecurity companies will focus on the big picture of securing the entire company from ALL security threats including AI-enabled attacks.
The Need to Evolve Company Security to Compliance-Level Security
Enterprise Companies
Enterprise companies already work toward compliance-level security with high levels of maturity. You will need to add some AI user focused security to protect against threats from LLM usage, AI agent development and AI agent platform usage.
To protect against the next generation of zero-day attacks, a renewed focus on standardizing on cyber security partners with broad XDR & AI enabled platforms will be more important than ever before.
Small and Mid-Sized Companies
Evolving Security Maturity Requirements Over Time
For smaller companies, too often the focus has been on doing as little as possible while trying to avoid ransomware, hacking or other cyber-attacks.
Small and medium sized companies found out in 2013 that cyber-attack kits could drive ransomware attacks on all sized companies. That caused a move toward better security by all companies.
In the 2020s, the need to acquire cyber-insurance drove increased security again, but still with the goal of just meeting the cyber-insurance company’s requirements, not full compliance level security.
In 2026, AI will drive the 2nd generation of ransomware and zero-day attacks with an even higher volume of attacks. These attacks will be perpetrated on all sized companies causing broad upgrades to company security. The need for all companies to add new solutions like SASE, MDR and AI user security will be required.
The need to migrate to compliance level security is finally here. Either upgrade your security of pay the price.
Partnering With eSecurity Solutions for AI‑Ready Defense
AI‑driven attacks are coming faster and at greater scale, making proactive security a necessity—not an option. eSecurity Solutions helps organizations close security gaps, move to compliance‑level protection, and prepare for AI‑enabled zero‑day threats.
Book a free AI security consultation to take the next step toward resilient, future‑ready security.
Frequently Asked Questions
AI enables attackers to discover zero‑day vulnerabilities, create exploits, and launch attacks automatically and at scale, dramatically increasing speed, volume, and impact compared to human‑driven attacks.
AI‑powered vulnerability discovery and Crime‑as‑a‑Service (CaaS) platforms are lowering the barrier to entry, allowing more attackers to exploit previously unknown weaknesses across a broader attack surface.
No—while AI usage introduces new risks, the most significant threat comes from AI‑discovered zero‑day vulnerabilities and automated attacks targeting infrastructure, applications, and networks.
It means adopting mature, standardized security controls—such as XDR, MDR, Zero Trust, SASE, and real‑time zero‑day protection—to withstand continuous, AI‑enabled attacks.
eSecurity Solutions partners with organizations to assess risk, close security gaps, deploy AI‑aware platforms, and deliver managed detection and response—helping you move confidently toward AI‑ready, resilient security.