Emerging Hacker AI Strategies and the Vital Role of Managed IT

AI has made life easier for businesses. But it has also empowered hackers to launch large-scale attacks with sharp accuracy. 

According to McKinsey, phishing attacks have surged 1200% since the rise of generative AI in 2022. SoSafe’s cybercrime trends for 2025 noted that 87% of security pros have faced AI-enhanced cyberattacks, but only 26% have high confidence in their ability to detect them. 

The cybersecurity numbers are worrying, and they take the shine off the operational and productivity gains made by AI. Having said that, the McKinsey report emphasizes that AI is also a great defender of security and privacy, provided you implement the right tools through the right channels. 

To know how you can maneuver around AI-powered threats, you have to first understand the rapidly evolving threat landscape:

Emerging AI-driven threats

1. Social engineering attacks and deepfakes

In 2024, a Hong Kong firm’s employee ended up paying $25 million to criminals posing as the CFO over a video call. Deepfake technology has improved to the point that it’s very easy to be duped, even by a seasoned professional. 

According to IRONSCALES, 85% of cybersecurity pros have experienced deepfake incidents, and 61% of organizations have lost more than $100,000 to these attacks in the last 12 months. 

With the explosion of Sora and Nano Banana models, it’s easier than ever to create lifelike footage of executives and colleagues to target other employees. 

2. AI-powered spear phishing 

Phishing has been one of the most resilient cyberattacks over the decades, and in 2025, it has gotten a makeover, thanks to AI. 

The AI-written phishing emails read as natural as normal emails, making them hard to detect. According to SlashNext, phishing attacks have gone up 4,151% since 2022. 

With AI, it’s a matter of a few clicks to run background research on personnel and company assets, automate phishing email sequences, impersonate sender identities, or generate follow-up messages.

3. Prompt injection 

Prompt injection is one of the newest and fastest-growing AI-specific threats in 2025. It happens when hackers secretly embed malicious instructions into user prompts or web content that interact with LLMs.

When AI tools process those prompts, the attacker can make the model reveal confidential data, execute unintended actions, or even rewrite its own safety rules.

This kind of manipulation has already been seen in business chatbots and customer support systems, where compromised prompts were used to harvest personal data or redirect users to phishing pages. AI-browsers like Perplexity Comet are already susceptible to prompt injections, and as more SMBs rely on LLMs, the attacks are expected to rise sharply.

4. Polymorphic malware 

Traditional malware could often be stopped by signature-based defenses. But things are different with AI.

Polymorphic malware now uses AI to constantly rewrite its own code and mutate its appearance to evade firewalls. Each time it runs, it can look and behave differently, with some malware creating unique versions every 15 seconds! 

According to DeepStrike’s 2025 report, 76% of phishing campaigns now include polymorphic techniques. The rise of AI-enabled code generation means even attackers with limited skills can produce new malware variants within minutes. 

5. Shadow AI data leaks 

According to LayerX, 77% of employees paste internal data into gen AI tools, and 82% of these activities happen in unmanaged accounts. The trend is corroborated by Menlo Security, which found that 57% of employees input sensitive data into personal ChatGPT accounts. 

Once entered, that data can be stored, shared, or even used for model training. The proliferation of shadow AI has created a gateway for consistent data leaks and compliance nightmares. 

The challenges to tackle cybersecurity threats 

Despite the well-documented threats, it’s not easy to thwart them. We have three key reasons for that:

Widening response gap

AI is accelerating attack capabilities faster than defenses can adapt. Berkeley’s analysis shows attackers already gain more from AI empowerment than defenders do in real-world scenarios. This is because cybersecurity has more guardrails that slow down detection and response. 

AI bias

AI suffers from issues like algorithmic bias, data dependency, and opacity. Nearly half of AI security systems have blind spots due to biased or incomplete training data. During attacks, hackers can exploit AI’s ethical dilemmas through model poisoning or prompt injections.

Skills gap

Even with state-of-the-art tools, SMBs struggle because they lack the people to run them. Fortinet’s 2025 report finds that 48% of IT decision makers cite inadequate AI expertise as a key barrier, despite 97% planning or already using AI in security. The broader industry echoes the same sentiment: breach costs are rising in part because defenders can’t staff or skill up fast enough.

Managed IT services: the key to protect against AI-driven threats 

AI can spot anomalies faster than any human, but as we have seen so far, it still needs human judgment to interpret, prioritize, and act. That’s where managed IT services come in. 

IT experts can combine AI-powered monitoring with real-time human expertise to detect evolving threats, patch vulnerabilities, and respond before damage spreads. Managed IT can

• Run AI-native managed detection and response to safeguard company systems with proactive monitoring 
• Lead a human-verified response system to isolate and investigate issues and neutralise threats
• Grow into a strategic partner to keep security practices and policies aligned with compliance norms

A hybrid approach is no longer optional; it’s essential. Managed IT teams bring the context, compliance knowledge, and strategic oversight that AI alone can’t replicate. They ensure your systems are updated, data is protected, and responses are immediate when AI-driven attacks strike.

MyTek: your managed IT solution 

AI threats are evolving fast, but so can your defenses. MyTek delivers managed IT and cybersecurity services across Arizona, combining proactive monitoring, AI-driven threat detection, and Microsoft expertise to keep your business secure and compliant.

From 24/7 network protection to strategic IT planning, we help SMBs stay ahead of emerging risks and focus on growth.

Contact MyTek today to safeguard your business with intelligent IT management.