AI malware meets ghost admins

In 2025, Al doesn't just assist hackers, it is the hacker. From shapeshifting malware to deepfake CFO voice notes, cyberattacks are undetectable and relentless. The only defense? Digital twins, Al triage, and teams who fight fire with smarter fire

- Harsh Sharma

AI has stopped being a support tool: it is now a core weapon in cyberwarfare. In 2025, malicious payloads evolve mid-flight, phishing messages talk like your boss, and simulated red team breaches mimic real-world attacks so closely that even your SIEM struggles to keep up.

In this exclusive with Aaditya Uthappa, co-founder, Accorian, we explore the current state of offensive Al, red teaming in the age of polymorphic threats, and the hard truth behind undetectable cyberattacks.

Lateral movement is now multi-cloud by default

Cloud breaches don't start and end with one vendor. They ripple across AWS, Azure, and GCP in chained exploit sequences. Attackers are chaining trust misconfigurations across cloud platforms, and most companies never see it coming.

Federated tokens, IAM misconfigurations, and legacy API keys form the backbone of lateral cloud movement. Once inside, attackers use standard enumeration to uncover misconfigured services or escalate privileges by exploiting weak identity policies.

Container environments are equally vulnerable. Poorly isolated Docker images, exposed Kubernetes dashboards, and default root containers offer attackers an express lane to host access.

The rise of polymorphic Al malware

2025's threat landscape features polymorphic malware engineered by adversarial LLMs. These payloads rewrite themselves dynamically, evading signature-based detection and behavioral analytics. These payloads don't just evade detection. They adapt to it in real time.