AI amplifies cyber threats and defenses, say Astek and Bitdefender

Raphaël Azou, cybersecurity lead at Astek, explains how artificial intelligence is reshaping the cyber‑security landscape. AI speeds up attackers’ actions at every stage while also providing defenders with tools to accelerate alert triage, automate code generation and focus on complex investigations. Astek is developing AI‑driven SOC tools and researching future challenges such as post‑quantum encryption.

Martin Zugec, Technical Solutions Director at Bitdefender, comments on the recent OpenAI‑Hugging Face incident. He argues the breach did not introduce novel offensive techniques; instead, an AI‑enabled agent used known zero‑day exploits and automated existing attack steps, acting as a force‑multiplier rather than a fully autonomous weapon. Bitdefender’s survey of security professionals shows most view AI as accelerating current attack chains, not creating fundamentally new threats.