To Defend Against AI Attackers, Start Thinking Like One

Yair Grindlinger is CEO and Co-Founder of Surf AI.

AI is not black magic. It still has to work through real systems, identities, applications and infrastructure, which means its limits are knowable. That matters, because fear is only useful when it’s aimed at the right things.

For enterprises, the right thing to fear is how AI changes the attacker. AI-driven attacks are faster, more persistent and more sophisticated, and they can exploit a single critical weakness or chain together a handful of small ones until they find a way in. ​​

AI Changes The Economics Of An Attack

There are several obvious ways AI changes attacks. First is speed. We’re seeing attacks happen in hours instead of days or weeks because AI systems can operate 24/7. The window for defenders is already shrinking. CrowdStrike’s 2026 Global Threat Report found that the average time it took criminal attackers to move from initial access deeper into a network​ fell to 29 minutes, and the fastest observed breakout took just 27 seconds.

But I think stamina may be even more important than speed. A typical human attacker might spend a few hours trying to get into an organization. If nothing works, they may move to the next victim. AI doesn’t necessarily have that limitation. If you tell an AI system to find a way in, it can keep working 24/7 until it finds something.

Then there is breadth of knowledge. Human attackers are typically good at something, whether it’s social engineering, zero-days or a particular system. AI can have the whole playbook. The same system can work across identity, software vulnerabilities, configurations and other attack surfaces. Because it has both stamina and breadth of knowledge, it can connect those weaknesses together.

Sophistication Shows Up In The Chain

A human attacker may look for one big open window and move on if it isn’t there. AI will find that window faster, and if it isn’t there, it will patiently look for the little things and chain them together.