A surge in artificial intelligence-assisted cyberattacks has overwhelmed some of America’s leading cybersecurity companies, forcing them to turn away businesses seeking emergency assistance as hackers increasingly target critical infrastructure.
Three major U.S. cybersecurity firms — Google’s Mandiant, CrowdStrike, and Kroll — told NBC News that cyberattacks have reached unprecedented levels, with AI enabling criminals and foreign intelligence operatives to launch attacks faster and on a larger scale.
“Over the past two months or so, we’ve seen a surge of intrusion activity that is really overwhelming cyberdefenders and incident response companies,” Charles Carmakal, Mandiant’s chief technology officer, told NBC News.
“Incident response organizations are largely turning down the majority of the organizations that are reaching out to them,” he added.
The increase in cyberattacks comes amid a series of incidents affecting American universities, utilities, and military facilities.
Vanderbilt University officials warned students and employees Monday to disconnect university devices from campus Wi-Fi while investigating an active cybersecurity incident.
A ransomware group claimed to have stolen personal information, including more than 1 million Social Security numbers, but university officials had not verified the claim, The Washington Post reported.
Federal authorities also are investigating suspicious refrigeration failures that occurred at six U.S. military base commissaries in August.
The FBI and other federal agencies issued warnings after hackers disrupted refrigeration systems at European grocery stores and blood banks.
“The FBI and our partners are seeing malicious cyber activity targeting industrial refrigeration and cold-chain monitoring systems around the world,” the bureau warned on social media.
FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director Brett Leatherman said attackers exploit outdated controllers, unsecured internet connections, and default passwords.
Federal authorities urged businesses to strengthen cybersecurity measures to protect American food and medical supplies from similar attacks.
Meanwhile, suspected Iranian cyber operations have targeted water and wastewater utilities in at least 12 states, ABC News reported in August.
The FBI recommended disconnecting vulnerable systems from the internet and preparing to operate equipment manually. No widespread disruptions to water service were reported.
In late October, the FBI’s Cyber Division warned that two critical vulnerabilities in PHP, a widely used programming language for websites and web applications, could allow hackers to execute malicious code remotely on affected systems, potentially compromising sensitive data and networks.
Cybersecurity experts warn that AI is making cyberattacks more difficult to contain.
“One person can cause work for thousands of people,” Carmakal said.
CrowdStrike identified a hacking campaign suspected of having ties to Chinese intelligence that compromised multiple organizations worldwide and targeted hundreds more.
Kroll executive Max Henderson said demand for emergency cybersecurity assistance has risen each month, with no indication of when it might subside.