More than 20% of organizations reported a breach targeting AI models or applications
Jul 29, 2026
, /PRNewswire/ -- One in four malicious breaches were AI-enabled – a 56% increase over last year – and these breaches cost an average of $6 million, roughly $1 million more than the global breach average of $4.99 million, according to IBM's 2026 Cost of a Data Breach Report.
These attacks, compromised of mostly deepfake impersonation and AI-enabled malware, are reshaping breach economics. Attacks are getting faster and cheaper to launch, while breaches keep getting more expensive to find and fix. Companies that reported using AI and automation in security operations cut breach costs by an average of almost $2 million dollars, yet one in four organizations have still not adopted these tools in their security operations.
This growing imbalance—where attacks can be launched for thousands while breaches cost millions—is fundamentally changing the economics of cyber risk.
