Verizon: AI Accelerating Data Breach Attacks from Months to Hours

SHARE THIS ARTICLE

Verizon says its 19th edition of the Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) confirms AI driven speed is a new challenge, pushing security strategy toward resilience. The report, out Tuesday, shows how AI is impacting the cyber threat landscape. Although this report uses 2025 data, predating the latest frontier model advancements, the trends are clear, according to the carrier.

Verizon says AI is fundamentally reshaping the cybersecurity industry. AI-detected vulnerabilities are in the news. For the first time since Verizon has released this report, it says, “exploiting vulnerabilities has surpassed stolen credentials to become the number one breach entry point. AI is being leveraged by threat actors to accelerate the time to exploit known vulnerabilities, shrinking the window for defense from months to mere hours.” 

Key findings from the report:

  • As people get more savvy about traditional email phishing, threat actors are pivoting to mobile-centric social engineering (fake text messages and voice calls) with a success rate 40 percent higher than traditional email phishing.  
  • Shadow AI, referring to employees using unapproved AI tools at work, is now the third most common non-malicious data leakage related activity. Frequent usage of AI tools by employees has surged from 15 percent to 45 percent of employees in a single year.
  • As companies rely more heavily on external vendors, threat actors are exploiting those vulnerabilities, with breaches involving a third party now accounting for 48 percent of all breaches. 
  • AI Bot Internet Crawlers are experiencing a “massive” 21 percent month-over-month growth compared to entirely flat (0.3 percent) human-led traffic growth, showing where the next set of threats could come from.
    The rapid weaponization of known vulnerabilities by AI can create a “capacity crisis” for security teams, underscoring the urgent need to prioritize fundamental security and risk management practices, Verizon says. In response, the DBIR is providing Chief Information Security Officers and cybersecurity professionals “with actionable, resilient recommendations with today’s AI environment in mind. These include preparing for an influx of patches as AI identifies software flaws at an accelerating rate and integrating AI into ’secure by design’ frameworks,” notes Verizon.

“While the velocity of cyber threats—driven by AI and faster vulnerability exploitation—is increasing, the foundational principles of security and strong risk management remain the most effective defense,” said Verizon Business SVP Global Solutions Daniel Lawson. “The DBIR reinforces that these fundamentals still hold as organizations strive for resilience.”