State-aligned threat actors are folding AI into every stage of the attack chain while hiding their infrastructure inside the services defenders already trust. This report unpacks the geopolitics driving the activity and what defenders should prioritize next.
TrendAI™ Research analyzed 2,014 enterprises throughout 2025 and found that cyber damage is shaped by the interaction of attack pressure and exposure, with the highest-risk organizations experiencing up to 3.3 times as much damage as the lowest. The study introduces a Cyber Risk Positioning Map that can help organizations identify whether to prioritize reducing exposure, strengthening response capability, or both.
AI‑enabled APTs are accelerating attacks, shrinking response windows, and raising the stakes. This report reveals what’s changed and how to defend against it.
TrendAI™ Research has developed a model training procedure for learning an essential representation of prompt injection attacks. The resulting prompt representation exhibits approximately linear separability, allowing the specialized, small-scale classifier trained on features derived from the representation to achieve high classification performance.
In this second installment of a series exploring emerging AI-driven attack surfaces, TrendAI™ Research focuses on employee digital twins: AI replicas of employees that create new vectors for identity compromise, data exfiltration, and persistent access.
Even as AI adoption accelerates, old exploits remain overlooked weaknesses. Underground trends show a renewed demand for exploits, with cybercriminals relying on aging but still effective vulnerabilities. We examine this blind spot and why long-standing issues need to be addressed.
TrendAI™ Research has found that user behaviors and machine usage patterns are key drivers of malware risk. This study’s analysis of over 10 million endpoints confirms that risk is highly context-dependent and offers insights into how organizations can pivot to improve their security posture.
AI skills bridge the gap between AI capabilities and real-world operations, but in doing so, they also introduce new risks and avenues for attack. We explore the challenges of AI skill adoption and provide a practical framework for secure deployment.
The 2025 criminal AI battlefield underscores the robust weaponization of the rapidly growing technology. From criminal large language models (LLMs) and AI-powered malware to deepfakes at scale, threats are advancing on every front. Looking back on the year in criminal AI is crucial for hardening defenses and preparing for what’s next.