Nearly 72% of organisations in India have been targeted by Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered cyberattacks in the past year, a new report said on Sunday.&nbsp;
The report released by cybersecurity firm Fortinet and global research agency IDC warns that AI has become a new weapon in the hands of cybercriminals, enabling them to launch faster, more sophisticated, and stealthier attacks than ever before.
The findings reveal that these AI-driven threats are not only growing in volume but also becoming increasingly difficult to detect.
Many of them exploit vulnerabilities in human behaviour, misconfigured systems, and identity management frameworks &mdash; areas where traditional cybersecurity tools often fall short.
The most common AI-enabled threats in India include credential stuffing, brute force attacks, deepfake impersonation in business emails, AI-generated phishing scams, and polymorphic malware that keeps changing to avoid detection.
What&rsquo;s more alarming is the lack of preparedness among Indian firms. Only 14% of organisations say they are very confident in their ability to defend against such advanced attacks.
Meanwhile, 36 % admit that these AI-based threats are outpacing their ability to detect them, and 21% have no systems in place to track them at all &mdash; leaving a huge security gap across industries.
"The rise of AI in the cybercriminal toolkit is no longer a future threat &mdash; it&rsquo;s here now," said Simon Piff, Vice-President at IDC Asia-Pacific.
"Organisations need to move beyond reactive strategies and adopt predictive, intelligence-driven cybersecurity models to stay ahead," he added.
The report also finds that cyber risk has become a constant in the lives of Indian businesses, no longer limited to occasional incidents.
Attacks are now targeting cloud infrastructure, software supply chains, and zero-day vulnerabilities.
Traditional threats like phishing and ransomware still exist, but newer, more complex attacks &mdash; such as insider threats and cloud misconfigurations &mdash; are seen as more damaging.
Vivek Srivastava, Country Manager for India and SAARC at Fortinet, said: "AI is now both the biggest threat and the most powerful defence. Our goal is to help Indian businesses shift from scattered tools to unified, AI-driven security platforms that are built to scale and adapt."
Rashish Pandey, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Fortinet Asia &amp;amp; ANZ, added that the focus is now shifting from just infrastructure to more strategic priorities like identity security, cyber resilience, and access control.
&mdash;IANS (Apart from the headline, this article has not been edited by Benefit News editorial team and is published from an IANS news feed.)

AI-powered cyberattack targeting Indian businesses digitally

72% Indian firms targeted by AI cyberattacks; only 14% confident in defense readiness

72% Indian Firms Face AI-Powered Cyberattacks

72% Indian firms targeted by AI cyberattacks; only 14% confident in defense readiness

June 9, 2025 | 09:50 IST