AI-Powered Cyberattacks: Is Your Business Ready for 2027?

Tim (0:00)

It's the Morning Drive, Cybersecurity Awareness Month takes place every October. I didn't know that until I just read that line. I've learned something else today. But as AI makes cyberattacks increasingly sophisticated, are businesses doing enough to protect themselves? The UAE has reported up to 200,000 daily breach attempts against its infrastructure. So what should businesses be watching as 2026 draws to a close?

We're in October saying that, but there you are. Divya Raj joins me. She is the business unit head, the BU head, apparently, for critical infrastructure security, OT and IoT at Paramount Assure. She's also speaking at CISEC in Abu Dhabi on Thursday. It's nice to meet you.

Divya Raj (0:44)

Nice to meet you too, Tim.

Tim (0:46)

Good to have you here. So we're well into the final quarter of the year. It is kind of drawing to a close. What are the biggest cybersecurity threats that businesses should be watching for and preparing for now?

Divya Raj (0:59)

But before I get to that, I want to pick on something you just said.

Tim (1:03)

Oh, here we go.

Divya Raj (1:05)

I just read the words. No. So you mentioned about more than 200,000 assets being exposed to cyber attack in the UAE.

But what is even worthy of noting there is that of all these attacks, the vulnerabilities have been existing for more than five years.

Tim (1:25)

Really?

Divya Raj (1:25)

Yeah. So see, even after identification of the risk, the remediation is taking almost five years. And this is a huge amount of time for attackers to come and play and do whatever they want with the assets.

Tim (1:37)

Cyber attack doesn't need five years, does it? Let's face it. So let me ask you, by return, why is it taking so long? Why are people not react?

Why are they not being proactive, but why are they not reacting as well?

Divya Raj (1:51)

Exactly. And that is why every year, as a part of my job, it is my duty to educate my clients on this. But coming back to your questions, what is it that businesses are looking at in terms of some key threats that they're facing today is one AI. AI is the buzzword. Now, even hackers have AI at their disposal. So something that used to take a hacker 10 days, 20 days to come up with can be done in minutes now. They can do automated reconnaissance. They can identify vulnerabilities in your environment very, very quickly. They can exploit it at their whim. So it's become very, very easy. So definitely AI-powered attacks is something that businesses have to be wary about.

The second is ransomware. See, I am responsible for operational technology security. You know what ransomware attack is?

Tim (2:44)

I do know what ransomware attack is.

Divya Raj (2:46)

They will basically lock you out of your system, will not give you the key until you pay up.

Tim (2:51)

Yeah.

Divya Raj (2:51)

Okay? So they encrypt your data, they will ask for a ransom, and only then will they decrypt. And industrial sector is the number one target for ransomware.

Tim (3:02)

How much does that happen now?

Divya Raj (3:05)

It's an 87% year-on-year increase in ransomware. 87% year-on-year increase in ransomware. And third, that has become very, very active nowadays is your supply chain attack. So you may have your house in order. You may be doing everything right, but you are interacting with your suppliers, your third-party vendors, maybe a third-party software that you trust, but they don't have their house in order.

So that is one gateway to enter multiple organizations at the same time.

Tim (3:36)

There's loads of ways to enter the chain, isn't there? Yeah, that's the point.

Divya Raj (3:40)

But you know what is above all of this? Cool.

Humans.

Tim (3:46)

Well, we were talking about that this morning, and we are the weak link in our chain, aren't we?

Divya Raj (3:54)

Absolutely. Every attack, if you traditionally look at any attack, everything begins with either a malicious link clicked or a password leaked.

So we are the most vulnerable link in the chain, and we are the entry point to every attack that happens to any system across. So in times to come, while tools, technologies will definitely play a part, but educating your humans, giving them proper awareness and making them know that they are an integral part of the security posture of their company is very, very important.

Tim (4:33)

And reminding people that two-factor authentication is actually really important, and you have to do it, even though it's a little bit of a pain at times, and we're all a little bit like, oh, this is much harder than it used to be. Why is that? Well, it's much harder because it is much more important. Absolutely. Okay, so constant reminders and constant education. I get you. So, can I go back to that 200,000 figure, the daily breach attempts that UAE has reported?