Check your exposure
Is your organisation exposed to AI powered attacks?
Almost every organisation is exposed somewhere: through people who act on requests, through systems that are slow to patch, or through AI tools that read untrusted content.
Last reviewed against NCSC (UK), Anthropic and UK Government (DSIT and Home Office). Sources
People
Who can be talked into acting
List the roles that can move money, change supplier bank details, reset passwords or release data. These are the roles an impersonator aims at. In the Arup case, the employee had doubts about the first message, and a video call full of apparent colleagues settled them [8].
Check these as well:
- Whether one request, by any channel, is enough to change bank details
- Whether the service desk resets access after a phone call alone
- Whether staff can pause a request without being seen as obstructive
- Whether recordings of senior staff are public and could be copied
Inboxes
The most common route
Phishing led the 2025/2026 survey for UK businesses (38%) and charities (25%) [6]. Of businesses that had an incident, 51% had phishing and nothing else [6]. If your defence depends on staff spotting clumsy wording, it rests on a weak signal, since the NCSC judges AI will make elements of intrusion more effective [1].
Systems
How quickly you can fix
The NCSC expects AI-enabled tools to bring intrusion within reach of more attackers, and says that keeping AI systems and their dependencies up to date is part of the defence [1]. Ask how long your slowest security fix takes to reach internet-facing systems, and who decides when that is too long.
AI tools
Reach and permissions
For each AI tool in use, note what content it reads, what data it can reach and what it can do without a person approving it. The NCSC gives the example of an LLM that processes external email: it should be kept away from privileged tools [2]. The survey found 31% of businesses were somewhere on the path of AI use, from planning to live running [6], so the list is rarely empty.
Next: the defence plan turns each gap into an action.
A quick test for each tool
Ask what the worst action is that hostile text in an email or web page could trigger. If the answer is sending data out or changing records, restrict the tool before anything else [2].
Am I affected?
Answer a few questions
Check if you are affected
Answer three questions about your payment checks, your email defences and your AI tools. Nothing you answer leaves this page.
Could a payment, a bank detail change or an access reset go ahead because someone on a call, video meeting or message appeared to be a senior colleague?
What is affected
The software and products in scope
Staff who approve payments, change bank details or reset access[8]
In the Arup case, synthetic voices and images impersonated senior officers on a video call.
Every organisation that receives email and messages[6]
Phishing ranked first among attack types in the 2025/2026 government survey.
Organisations with systems that are slow to patch[1]
The NCSC expects AI-enabled cyber tools to put intrusion within reach of more people.
Teams using or building LLM tools that read untrusted content[2]
Prompt injection probably cannot be fully prevented, so privileges and impact must be limited by design.
Critical national infrastructure that integrates AI[1]
The NCSC says growing AI integration creates a larger attack surface.
Targets of well-resourced state-linked campaigns[5]
Anthropic reported about thirty targets across technology, finance, chemicals and government, with a small number of successes.
Keep reading
Read next
How to defend
An ordered plan for UK organisations to defend against AI powered attacks: payment checks, phishing, patching, AI tool limits, logging and the board.
Read the guide
Timeline
A dated, sourced timeline of AI related cyber attack cases and UK guidance, from the Arup deepfake fraud in 2024 to the 2026 breaches survey.
Read the guide
Questions
Sourced answers on AI powered cyber attacks: what they are, how deepfake fraud works, prompt injection, UK figures and what organisations should do.
Read the guideHow CyPro can help
Need a hand with any of this?
Patching is one job. Keeping a vulnerable system safe until it is patched, and proving it, is several more. CyPro's consultants, testers and SOC analysts can take any of them off your plate.
Vulnerability scanning
Find every internet-facing system you run, including the forgotten ones, and see which are still on a vulnerable build.
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Hardening and segmentation
Our consultants put the controls in place that limit the damage when something is missed: firewall rules, network isolation and tighter admin access.
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24/7 security monitoring
Our SOC analysts watch your systems day and night for the signs of an attack in progress: unexpected processes, new outbound connections, logins that do not fit.
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Penetration testing
A focused test of your systems and the controls around them, so you know they hold before an attacker finds out for you.
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Incident response
If you may already be compromised, our responders contain it, preserve the evidence, find out what was touched and get you running again safely.
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Fractional CISO for the board
A senior security lead who advises the board on what to fix first, what to accept and what to tell customers, and owns the decision record.
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Know your exposure
Not sure you are protected?
Many of the risks here sit in how an organisation uses AI: what tools staff run, what they can reach and who owns the risk. AI governance work sets that out so controls match the tools in use.