Are AI cyber threats overhyped?

We’re just over a week into 2026 but already, enterprise cybersecurity teams will be hard at work repelling attacks – and business leaders will be worrying about the year ahead.

On the one hand, we’re told that AI tools are beginning to empower security teams to go further and faster. On the other, the use of AI by hackers to launch attacks also appears to be on the rise.

All of this is happening against a backdrop of rising geopolitical tensions and continual attacks by state-sponsored hacking groups against businesses. How will all this come together in 2026 and beyond?

In this episode, Jane and Rory are joined by Jamie Collier, lead advisor in Europe at Google Threat Intelligence Group, to explore the risks – both novel and ordinary – enterprises face in 2026.

Read more:

1. NCSC issues urgent warning over growing AI prompt injection risks – here’s what you need to know
2. Cyber experts have been warning about AI-powered DDoS attacks – now they’re becoming a reality
3. Salt Typhoon attack on US congressional email system ‘exposes how vulnerable core communications systems remain to nation-state actors’
4. OpenAI says prompt injection attacks are a serious threat for AI browsers – and it’s a problem that’s ‘unlikely to ever be fully solved'
5. OpenAI turns to red teamers to prevent malicious ChatGPT use as company warns future models could pose 'high' security risk
6. A flaw in Google’s new Gemini CLI tool could’ve allowed hackers to exfiltrate data
7. Google says you shouldn't worry about AI malware – but that won’t last long as hackers refine techniques
8. North Korean IT workers: The growing threat
9. North Korean hackers continue targeting developers in open source malware campaign - and experts say as many as 36,000 victims have been snared so far
10. CRINK attacks: which nation state hackers will be the biggest threat in 2026?