AI is transforming the cybersecurity landscape, particularly in the realm of phishing attacks. As attackers become increasingly sophisticated, employing malicious AI tools to enhance their operations, organizations are countering with AI-powered defenses. However, human vulnerability remains a significant challenge, as many cyberattacks stem from misplaced trust—often initiated by seemingly credible requests or links that pique curiosity.

Phishing is no minor threat; AI has dramatically inflated its economic viability. Currently, phishing accounts for 25% of global cyberattacks, and this figure rises to 52% for managed service providers, marking a significant year-on-year increase. Rather than serving as an endpoint, phishing acts as a gateway for more extensive credential theft and disruption. AI-generated content is now more convincing and context-aware, allowing attackers to craft realistic lures at unprecedented speed and scale.

Moreover, the evolution of communication tools means that phishing has moved beyond traditional email scams. Collaboration platforms facilitate rapid interaction, where requests for logins or approvals can appear routine, making detection challenging. AI enhances these manipulative tactics by producing clearer and more error-free messages that often evade scrutiny.

Organizations must shift their security focus to encompass these modern workflows. Treating collaboration platforms as high-risk environments is crucial, alongside implementing robust monitoring of authentication and link-sharing activities. Additionally, training must adapt to equip employees with the skills to verify requests, emphasizing caution amidst the fast pace of digital communications. Strengthening identity management through robust authentication methods and access controls can also help contain potential breaches and minimize impact.

Five Ways Security Teams Can Combat Hyper-Volumetric DDoS Attacks

Hyper-volumetric DDoS attacks pose unprecedented challenges, hitting networks with massive request floods, exemplified by a recent Aisuru attack reaching 29.7 terabits-per-second (Tbps). Given that many assaults last under two minutes, security teams must urgently adapt their defenses.

1. Cloud Solutions: Transitioning DDoS protections to the cloud enables rapid scaling to absorb extreme traffic, delivering instant responses and global coverage. Unlike traditional on-premise solutions, which are limited by hardware and can be costly, cloud-based systems can react in real-time, crucial for short-lived attacks.

2. Comprehensive Coverage: Attackers now launch sophisticated multi-vector assaults. Employing AI and machine learning (ML) helps identify intricate attack patterns across various layers, enabling defenses to adapt and mitigate threats that may not surpass individual threat thresholds.

3. Proactive Monitoring: Hyper-volumetric attacks cleverly utilize trusted IPs. AI and ML can analyze typical household traffic for anomalies, providing early warning signs of a potential DDoS attack. Always-on defenses are essential to effectively respond to sudden traffic spikes.

4. Securing IoT Devices: A significant number of IoT devices remain poorly secured, allowing attackers to harness them for amplified assaults. Organizations must ensure robust security measures, timely updates, and retirement protocols to mitigate vulnerabilities.

5. Automated Defense Mechanisms: The rise of AI-powered attack strategies necessitates automated and adaptive security architectures. By utilizing real-time intelligence and automation, security teams can effectively counter intelligent adversaries, ensuring comprehensive DDoS protection.

By implementing these strategies, security teams can fortify their defenses against the escalating threat of hyper-volumetric DDoS attacks while leveraging AI for improved responsiveness and effectiveness.

Artificial intelligence is now a pivotal force for market leadership, prompting enterprises to transition from general-purpose computing to specialized AI infrastructures known as AI factories. This shift necessitates strong security measures that do not compromise performance.

Palo Alto Networks Prisma® AIRS™, now validated within the NVIDIA Enterprise AI Factory design and accelerated using NVIDIA BlueField data processing units (DPUs), exemplifies this innovation. This integrated solution embeds zero trust security directly into the AI infrastructure, ensuring comprehensive protection while sustaining AI performance. By deploying Prisma AIRS Network Intercept on NVIDIA BlueField and extending to the cloud, enterprises can maintain a robust governance framework that accelerates innovation and enhances control.

This architectural advancement optimizes AI performance by offloading security tasks to a separate domain and leveraging the DPU’s hardware acceleration. Real-time workload data processed through DOCA Argus informs AI-driven responses in Cortex XSIAM® via the Cortex XSOAR® orchestration platform, facilitating effective security responses.

According to Rich Campagna of Palo Alto Networks, the AI Factory is vital for value creation, making security a priority for business leaders. Kevin Deierling of NVIDIA emphasizes that security must evolve to be seamlessly integrated within AI infrastructures, ensuring it scales alongside growing demands.

In addition to deploying Prisma AIRS, maintaining a centralized Hyperscale Security Firewall (HSF) cluster enhances security by enforcing a defense-in-depth strategy. This architecture allows organizations to enhance their Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for AI, dedicating all computing resources to AI applications and maximizing throughput.

Overall, the collaboration between Palo Alto Networks and NVIDIA represents a critical step towards creating a secure, high-performance AI factory infrastructure — a roadmap for future-proofing enterprise investments in AI technology. Join us at the NVIDIA GTC 2026 in San Jose, CA, to learn more about securing the AI factory and accelerating innovation.

NVIDIA has enhanced its Enterprise AI Factory validated design by incorporating NVIDIA BlueField's cybersecurity and infrastructure acceleration capabilities, which bolster the services essential for AI factory operations while delivering security at the pace of AI processing. This integration benefits enterprises by improving runtime protection, streamlining operations, and fortifying the infrastructure critical for AI deployments.

The NVIDIA BlueField processor optimizes essential services—including networking, storage, security, and orchestration—allowing CPUs and GPUs to concentrate fully on AI tasks. By offloading these functions to a dedicated processor, BlueField empowers enterprises to scale AI operations while ensuring robust, real-time security.

This platform implements zero-trust, hardware-accelerated security that matches the speed of enterprise AI workloads. It isolates security functions, enhancing protection across all layers without compromising performance. The NVIDIA DOCA Argus framework further aids enterprises by providing AI runtime visibility and advanced threat detection throughout data ingestion, fine-tuning, and inference stages.

Validated software platforms from partners such as Armis, Check Point, F5, Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks, Rafay, Red Hat, Spectro Cloud, and Trend Micro are now integrated into the NVIDIA Enterprise AI Factory, which effectively mitigates cyber threats and vulnerabilities. These applications enable real-time monitoring, better workload isolation, and improved visibility over AI data, facilitating secure and efficient operations as traffic scales.

Such integrations ensure enterprises can deploy AI securely and efficiently, reinforcing the overall infrastructure while harnessing the power of NVIDIA BlueField acceleration. For further insight into NVIDIA BlueField and other AI advancements, participants can explore NVIDIA's offerings at CES through January 9 in Las Vegas.