AI is making cyber threats faster, but trust will define which businesses survive

AI amplifies cyber risks, exposing digital blind spots and the need for trust

by · TechRadar

Opinion By Sachin Puri Published 14 August 2026

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

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A small business owner receives a call from a customer.

An email that appeared to come from the business led the customer to a fraudulent website, and their personal information may have been compromised.

What makes situations like this so damaging is that the owner never knew the risk existed.

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The domain used in the attack had been registered for a campaign years earlier and left quietly active, sitting outside anyone's management, until someone else found a use for it.

Sachin Puri

CEO of Network Solutions Group, Bluehost Group.

Situations like this rarely begin with a major security breach. More often they start with something small: a forgotten domain, an outdated email configuration, or a digital asset nobody realized was still active.

AI makes finding those unnoticed weaknesses all too easy for attackers. According to KnowBe4's 2025 Phishing Threat Trends Report, 82.6% of phishing emails now show some use of AI, a 53.5% increase year-over-year. Attackers are adopting the same automation businesses use to improve efficiency, and the speed advantage has shifted. The good news is that businesses can use the same advances in AI to identify many of these risks before attackers do.

But the speed of detection is only part of the challenge. The harder problem is visibility. You can't secure what you don't know you own.

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