It has become very visible that AI Is the greatest threat and defense in cybersecurity today. Artificial intelligence has quickly become the sharpest double-edged sword in the cybersecurity landscape. On one hand, cybercriminals now wield AI tools to automate phishing campaigns, escalate sophisticated cyber-attacks, mimic human writing styles, craft highly personalized lures that lead to scalable business email compromise and social engineering scams, and even discover vulnerabilities faster than ever before. On the other, cybersecurity innovators are using the very same technology to detect, block, and neutralize these threats in real time. The battle for digital security has become an AI vs. AI arms race.
AI Is Accelerating Cyber Threats
Artificial intelligence is transforming the threat landscape at breakneck speed. Attack breakout times are now often under an hour, as cybercriminals use AI to create convincing phishing emails, fake websites, malicious code, and even deepfakes, making their attacks faster, more targeted, and harder to detect. What once required days of manual effort can now be launched at scale with the click of a button.
Attackers are also beginning to weaponize AI itself. By corrupting or poisoning models, they can undermine accuracy and manipulate outputs. A growing area of concern is RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation), where attackers may tamper with data retrieval pipelines to compromise the integrity of AI-powered systems.
The Browser: Today’s Predominant Attack Vector
While email remains a classic entry point for cyberattacks, the browser has quietly become the most exploited channel for cybercriminals. Every day, employees and individuals unknowingly expose themselves to malicious links, fake login pages, and drive-by downloads simply by clicking, scrolling, or logging into their favorite sites. The rise of remote work, cloud-based tools, and AI-generated scams has made the browser the new front line of digital risk.
Sophisticated adversaries are no longer just sending poorly written phishing emails; they are building convincing websites, exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities, and using AI-driven tools to impersonate trusted brands and colleagues. From business email compromise (BEC) to real-time social engineering scams, attackers are leveraging the browser to intercept the trust we place in our daily digital interactions.
AI as a Game-Changer for Defense
Fortunately, AI is just as powerful on the defensive side. Organizations are using it to shrink detection and response times, analyze massive datasets in real time, and identify anomalies before they escalate. From flagging suspicious emails and URLS, to spotting unusual login activity, to reverse-engineering malware and predicting vulnerabilities, defensive AI delivers insights humans alone could never achieve at scale.
Automation is also reshaping security operations. AI agents can handle routine tasks—like system monitoring and compliance checks—freeing analysts to focus on critical threats. The rise of agentic AI promises even more: semi-autonomous agents capable of triaging alerts, investigating threats, and executing response actions alongside human teams and or humans in the loop.
The AI Arms Race
Of course, attackers are evolving too. Machine learning allows them to probe defenses, adapt their methods in real time, launch sophisticated phishing attacks, clone personalities of bosses, employers, and employees, imitate colleague's writing and speech styles with the aim of gaining access to unauthorized systems, and refine social engineering tactics such as spear phishing and impersonation, execute more robust BEC attacks, and identify vulnerabilities that would have been much harder to spot, etc. This arms race means that traditional defenses are no longer enough.
The Path Forward
AI is both the most disruptive risk and the most promising solution in cybersecurity today. By adopting advanced, AI-driven defenses, organizations can turn the tables—transforming AI from a threat into an ally. One company that is giving organizations a fighting chance is “Flagged Inc”. Flagged is at the forefront of the AI arms race, building tools with AI from the bottom-up to combat AI-driven cyber-attacks.
Fighting AI with AI: How Flagged Inc. Tackles the Problem.
Companies like Flagged Inc. are leading the defense by reimagining how security is delivered—right where users interact with the web. Flagged has developed an AI and ML-powered safety browser extension that provides enterprise-grade protection for both organizations and individuals.
Here’s how it works:
AI-Driven Phishing Protection – Detects, flags, and blocks fraudulent websites and emails in real time, even when attackers use generative AI to craft near-perfect lures.
Business Email Compromise Defense – Monitors and analyzes communication patterns to catch subtle anomalies that human eyes would miss.
Social Engineering Scam Detection – Uses behavioral AI models to flag suspicious requests before employees can be tricked into clicking or transferring funds.
Web-Based Threat Mitigation – Stops malicious redirects, scripts, and downloads from executing in the browser.
Zero-Day Vulnerability Shielding – Employs ML models to recognize unusual browser and email behavior, protecting users before official patches are released.
By embedding protection directly into the tools people use most, “browsers and email clients”, Flagged ensures real-time defense where threats actually occur. It’s lightweight, scalable, and designed for a world where adversaries are leveraging AI to attack at scale.
The Bottom Line
AI has changed the rules of the game in cybersecurity. Cybercriminals will continue to evolve, using AI to accelerate and personalize their attacks. But defenders aren’t standing still. With AI-powered tools like Flagged’s browser extension, organizations and individuals can stay one step ahead, neutralizing threats before they cause damage.
In the end, the greatest threat and the greatest defense in cybersecurity today share the same name: artificial intelligence.
By Kanayo Ogwu, Co-Founder & CEO, Flagged Inc.