By Ross Kelly
Publication Date: 2026-08-03 09:43:00
More than one-in-five (22%) of UK firms have experienced an AI-related security breach in the last year, according to new research from IBM.
Findings from the firm’s 2026 Cost of a Data Breach report found AI-driven cyber attacks surged 56% across that period, prompting calls for enterprises to sharpen defenses.
The IBM study noted that the costs associated with AI-related breaches are “fundamentally changing the economics of cyber risk”, with the financial impact now standing at an average of $6 million.
Cyber criminals are increasingly focusing their attention both on targeting AI systems, and leveraging the technology to wage more devastating attacks, according to IBM.
Around 20% of organisations reported a breach where threat actors specifically targeted AI models or applications. The most frequent targets were “weaknesses in surrounding systems” such as compromised APIs or plug-ins (27%) and cloud misconfigurations (27%).
Running parallel to these threats, threat actors…
