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ZDNET's key takeaways
AI is helping attackers exploit vulnerabilities faster than ever.
Most cloud attacks now target weak third-party software.
Businesses need automated, AI-powered defenses to keep up.
The jury is still out on whether most businesses get any measurable benefit from implementing artificial intelligence in their organizations, and the debate is likely to get more contentious over time.
But at least one sector is reaping massive productivity gains in this age of AI: Cybercriminals are more successful than ever at leveraging vulnerabilities to attack businesses in the cloud, where they're most vulnerable.
Also: 5 ways to fortify your network against the new speed of AI attacks
That's the conclusion of a March 2026 Cloud Threat Horizons Report from Google's army of security investigators and engineers. Based on its observations from the second half of 2025, Google Cloud Security concluded, "The window between vulnerability disclosure and mass exploitation collapsed by an order of magnitude, from weeks to days."
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