AMSTERDAM: Corporations worldwide are facing a wave of cyber threats that executives say artificial intelligence is accelerating and making increasingly sophisticated.
The surge has strained IT departments and driven up security flaws, prompting firms to deploy automated tools. Reported software vulnerabilities tripled year on year to nearly 37,000 in the third quarter of 2026, according to the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures registry.
Recent incidents underscore the growing risks. Hackers targeted European supermarkets twice in three weeks, manipulating refrigerator and freezer temperatures to spoil food stocks.
Meanwhile, Binance suffered a record cryptocurrency theft, and severe software bugs in the PHP programming language forced organisations from Tokyo to Helsinki to take websites offline temporarily.
Industry leaders note that attackers use artificial intelligence to quickly reproduce weaknesses and exploit flaws before patches arrive.
In response, companies are scaling up budgets for defensive technology. McKinsey projects the global cybersecurity market will expand from $223 billion in 2025 to $346 billion by 2029.
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“Both sides use AI, and that race is continuing,” said Steffen Kindler, chief financial officer at Holcim. Companies worldwide are ramping up AI-powered cybersecurity investments as artificial intelligence accelerates a wave of sophisticated software vulnerabilities and attacks.
(With additional input from Reuters)
