Cybersecurity report shows AI accelerating vulnerability weaponization

Microsoft’s 2026 Digital Defense Report indicates that artificial intelligence has significantly accelerated the threat landscape, reducing the median time from vulnerability discovery to weaponization to under 24 hours. The report notes that phishing now accounts for 23% of initial access vectors in Microsoft’s incident response cases, while Teams-based vishing has increased by 502%. Government agencies remain the most targeted sector, representing 27% of observed activity.

In separate security developments, Kiteworks issued over 100 security advisories, including a dozen critical vulnerabilities related to its Core platform and Email Protection Gateway that could lead to account takeover or code execution. Additionally, researchers at SEC Consult identified two iCloud vulnerabilities that allow attackers to spoof emails from arbitrary icloud.com addresses. These flaws enable forged messages to pass standard SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication checks due to parsing discrepancies in Apple’s mail pipeline.