- Zscaler warns that enterprise AI systems can be hacked in less than two hours
- AI adoption growing 91% annually, with massive enterprise data flowing into GenAI tools
- Researchers Call for AI-Driven Zero Trust Defenses Against Machine-Speed Attacks
The risks of integrating AI tools into business processes without being fully aware of potential security issues could be far greater than anyone realizes, new research suggests.
Zscaler found that many companies can be hacked in less than two hours, then lose their sensitive data in just a few minutes.
“When enterprise AI systems are tested under real-world adversarial conditions, they break almost immediately,” the researchers said, highlighting how, in controlled scans, they were able to find critical vulnerabilities in less than 90 minutes for the majority of systems tested (90%). The median time to first critical failure was 16 minutes, and in the most extreme cases, defenses were bypassed in a single second.
Autonomous attacks at machine speed
Despite the bleak outlook, AI is being introduced into businesses at breakneck speed. AI and ML activity grew 91% year-over-year, across an ecosystem of more than 3,400 applications.
Finance and insurance remains the most AI-driven sector by volume, accounting for almost a quarter (23%) of all AI and ML traffic. Technology and education, on the other hand, exploded in usage, by 202% and 184%, respectively.
Enterprise data transfers to AI applications increased 93% year-over-year to 18,033 terabytes.
The massive influx of data has transformed tools like Grammarly (3,615 TB) and ChatGPT (2,021 TB) into “the most concentrated business intelligence repositories in the world”, it has been said.
Yet companies don’t pay attention to security. Many organizations “lack a baseline inventory of active AI models and built-in capabilities, preventing them from knowing exactly where sensitive data is exposed.”
“AI is no longer just a productivity tool, but a primary vector for machine-speed autonomous attacks, launched by both crimeware and nation-states,” said Deepen Desai, executive vice president of cybersecurity at Zscaler.
“In the age of agentic AI, an intrusion can go from discovery to lateral movement to data theft in minutes, rendering traditional defenses obsolete. To win this race, organizations must fight AI with AI by deploying an intelligent Zero Trust architecture that closes potential avenues for attackers of all kinds.
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