When Money Talks and Machines Mimic: Ransomware, Extortion, and the AI Arms Race in Cybersecurity
The landscape of cyber threats has shifted decisively toward financially motivated crime. Extortion and ransomware now drive more than half of attacks with known motivations, as opportunistic criminal groups scale operations with automated tooling and AI. Speed, automation, and deception combine to inflict outsized damage on vulnerable organizations and public services. Why extortion and ransomware dominate Ransomware and extortion target assets that are both critical and costly to restore. Hospitals,…