New data from Armis Labs’ third annual global Cyberwarfare report, Warfare Without Borders: AI’s Role in The New Age of Cyberwarfare, shows the threat of AI has increased for organizations and governments worldwide in the past year. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of IT decision-makers globally express concern about nation-state actors using AI to develop more sophisticated and targeted cyberattacks.
“AI is enabling nation-state actors to stealthily evolve their tactics to commit acts of cyberwarfare at any given moment,” said Nadir Izrael, CTO and Co-Founder of Armis. “At the same time, threats are emerging at overwhelming rates from smaller nations and non-state actors leveraging AI to elevate to near-peer cyber threats. It is imperative that cybersecurity leaders shift their programs left of boom, enabling them to stop cyberattacks capable of crippling their operations before there’s any impact to their organization.”
81% of IT leaders say moving to a proactive cybersecurity posture is a top goal for their organization in the year ahead but nearly 3 in 5 (58%) organizations admit that they currently only respond to threats as they occur, or after the damage has already been done.
Staying ahead of threats
Market consolidation, complex regulatory landscapes and gaps in legacy security tool stacks have challenged organizations’ abilities to stay ahead of threats. While many wish to implement AI-driven cybersecurity tools in a proactive defense move, half of IT decision-makers surveyed acknowledge their teams lack the necessary expertise to implement and manage the technology.
“Current industry dynamics create an appealing environment for malicious actors to intensify their efforts through automated AI offensive driven technologies,” said Michael Freeman, Head of Threat Intelligence at Armis. “Organizations that leverage proven AI security solutions will realize a greater impact in their ability to equip their teams with the resources and time they need to anticipate the tactics that could be used against them and harden their environments in response. Embracing a more proactive approach to threats has never been more important, and closing that divide between intention and ample preparation is within reach thanks to significant advancements in cyber exposure management.”
Additional key global findings from this year’s report include:
- 85% of IT decision-makers confirm that offensive techniques regularly bypass their security tools.
- Only 53% of IT leaders believe that their government can defend its citizens and organizations against an act of cyberwarfare, while just 33% strongly agree that their own organization is prepared to handle a cyberwarfare attack and respond to related threats.
- Across the globe, IT decision-makers consistently point to three dominant state-sponsored threats: Russia (73%), China (73%) and North Korea (40%).
- 72% of IT leaders believe that the cyber capabilities of nation-state actors have the potential to trigger a full-scale cyberwar, with devastating consequences for global critical infrastructure.
- Three-quarters (75%) of IT decision-makers believe cyberwarfare attacks will increasingly target institutions representing free press and independent thought – a sharp rise from last year’s 42%.
The 2025 Armis Cyberwarfare Report is based on a study of over 1,800 global IT decision-makers and proprietary data from Armis Labs. Read the full report from Armis, including a comprehensive breakdown of the findings for each region of respondents and IT decision-makers from different verticals here: https://www.armis.com/cyberwarfare-2024/
