76% of UK organizations have faced deepfake attacks. Most werent ready

Date:
Tue, 05 May 2026 09:00:46 +0000

Description:
As AI-driven attacks surge, organizations struggle to keep pace with growing threat complexity.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Three-quarters of UK organizations have already been targeted by deepfake attacks, according to research. Not as a theoretical risk. Not as a tabletop exercise. As actual incidents personalized phishing emails enhanced with AI-generated content, fraudulent voice and video designed to bypass human judgment.

According to recent industry research, only 40% feel very prepared to defend against the next one. Mike Riemer Social Links Navigation

SVP for Ivanti. Further, that pattern holds across every category of threat, not just deepfakes. Ransomware , compromised credentials, software vulnerabilities perceived risk keeps climbing while preparedness falls further behind. Article continues below You may like AI powers innovation
but its also powering the next wave of cyber attacks Friend or foe? AI: The new cybersecurity threat and solutions Adopting AI is a major priority for businesses - but employees are falling behind on education

For ransomware specifically, 63% of security professionals now rate it a high or critical threat for 2026, while just 30% say they're very prepared. The spread between perceived threat and preparedness is growing. Its getting worse.

Clearly, something is going wrong. And it isnt a small issue (in scale or in implications). AI is compressing timelines AI is compressing timelines When threat actors get hold of a security patch, AI tools let them
reverse-engineer what vulnerability it fixed and build a working exploit in roughly 72 hours. That figure comes from what we're observing in practice,
not from a lab.

Its still the norm for organizations to run patch deployment processes built around weekly or monthly cycles. Test in dev. Schedule a maintenance window. Coordinate with business units. By the time a patch reaches production, the exploit may already be circulating. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our
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The India AI Impact Summit in February brought 91 countries together to discuss governance frameworks guardrails, accountability, responsible deployment. All of these are important conversations.

But while policymakers work through principles, attackers are already using
AI operationally: automating phishing campaigns, generating convincing synthetic content and probing for weaknesses faster than any human team can manually track.

More bad news on the threat/preparedness front: 48% of security professionals classify synthetic digital content as a high or critical industry threat.
Only 27% say they're very prepared to deal with it a 21-point readiness shortfall on a threat that's already active. What to read next Agentic
attacks demand agentic defenses The Human Risk Reckoning: Why security must evolve for an AI-augmented workforce The fake Rolex problem: How AI turned amateur attackers into nation-state threats Stressed teams cant outpace machine-speed attacks The threat/preparedness gap isnt due to apathy. One in four organizations reports a critical shortage of IT talent and skills. Among security professionals specifically, 43% report high levels of job-related stress, and 79% say that stress affects their physical and mental health.

These numbers have a direct operational impact. Manual triage, manual coordination, manual patching every handoff adds delay, and every delay
gives attackers more room. Asking already-stretched teams to simply work faster won't close that margin.

The volume and velocity of AI-driven threats have outgrown what manual processes can absorb. Automation has to carry more of the load 65% of IT professionals predict AI and automation will improve overall IT service quality, and 86% say AI-powered technology is key to making IT organizations more efficient. The way I see it, the confidence is there. But adoption is lagging behind it.

There are a few commonalities I can see among organizations that seem to have figured things out. They've invested in automated deployment pipelines that compress patch timelines from weeks to days.

They've layered their defenses so systems waiting for patches aren't sitting exposed. And their leadership treats cybersecurity as an operational
priority. For context, if cybersecurity pretty much only surfaces during quarterly compliance reviews, thats not an operational priority.

Research supports the successful patterns among those organizations. Within most mature organizations those with advanced cybersecurity programs 77%
say they're very confident their team could prevent or stop a damaging security incident.

That kind of confidence comes from sustained investment in automation, exposure management and skills development. (As opposed to working harder within the same broken processes.) How to put this into action I dont want to rant about the problem and end things there. There are practical things that can be managed to improve an organization's defenses, and they dont all involve dramatic changes. For starters: Measure the time between when a critical patch drops and when it's fully deployed across your environment. If that number is measured in weeks, your process needs work. Attackers can weaponize a patch in roughly 72 hours. If your deployment timeline is
measured in weeks, the maths isnt working in your favor. Automate where you can. Ring deployment phased rollouts that validate patches in low-risk environments before pushing to production compresses timelines without gambling on stability. Invest in your people. The talent shortage is real,
but upskilling existing staff on AI-driven security tools closes the skills deficit faster than waiting for the hiring market to catch up. Overall, treat preparedness as something measurable, not a gut feeling. Track it. Report it. Act on it. We've featured the best secure email provider. This article was produced as part of TechRadar Pro Perspectives , our channel to feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today.

The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/pro/perspectives-how-to-submit



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