AI and automation are speeding up cyberattacks, but links remain unclear

Hackers tampered with refrigeration systems at dozens of European grocery stores in one night, raising temperatures and spoiling food.[1] French blood banks were also affected by attacks on European refrigeration systems, according to authorities.[1] The report says Russia is a reasonable first suspect because of the concentration of incidents in Europe, and Russian-aligned hackers had previously claimed attacks on European refrigeration systems.[1] But Nextgov reported that investigators suspect Iran was behind those attacks.[1] Most importantly, there is no clear evidence yet linking the food-supply attack through smart refrigeration to AI or automation.[1]

CrowdStrike found that China-linked hackers used the AI-powered tool Artex to target more than 200 organizations in 14 countries over 11 days last month.[1] The group, known as Vapor Panda, targeted government agencies in Latin America, the Middle East and Europe, as well as U.S. organizations and telecommunications providers in several countries.[1] The hackers paired Artex with DeepSeek and a commercial AI model to run agents that automated much of the operation.[1] Adam Meyers, CrowdStrike’s senior vice president of counter adversary operations, said he tested Artex and found it could probe websites for weaknesses faster than a human.[1]

Meyers said AI-powered tools Cairn and Strix could be repurposed for attacks similar to those using Artex.[1] He also said AI-powered hacking tools still require weaknesses to exploit.[1] That caveat matters when assessing what the technology changes: automation can speed up parts of an attack, but the evidence does not say it makes targets vulnerable without exploitable weaknesses.[1] The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre warned that AI could accelerate existing hacking tactics and leave organizations with weaker defenses and outdated technology especially vulnerable.[1] The report also compares the pattern with attacks on U.S. water systems that summer, saying nobody looked until they made the news.[1]