Oct 2, 2026 · 8 min
Businesses fear AI attacks but remain unprepared
AI readiness reports, KillSec takedown, OpenAI website scraping
PwC’s survey shows organizations are confronting emerging AI and quantum-era security risks without the readiness needed to manage them.
- 1Organizations increasingly fear attacks targeting their own AI systems, including autonomous botnets, adversarial attacks, and data poisoning.
- 2PwC’s 2027 survey finds a widening gap between concern about AI and quantum-enabled threats and practical preparedness.
- 3The episode places AI security anxiety within a broader cybersecurity news cycle involving law enforcement, infrastructure, and technology companies.
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The clearest moment is the survey’s contrast between intense concern over attacks on AI systems and organizations’ limited preparedness.
The brief
Steve Prentice opens with PwC’s 2027 Global Digital Trust Insights survey, based on nearly 4,000 businesses and focused on how organizations view emerging cyber risks.
The survey’s central tension is clear: businesses worry about attacks on their own AI systems, including autonomous botnets, adversarial attacks, and data poisoning, yet remain underprepared.
Quantum-enabled threats add another layer of uncertainty, suggesting that security planning must account for risks that extend beyond today’s familiar attack patterns.
The wider headlines connect that strategic concern to active cybercrime, government response, technology companies, and critical-infrastructure security.
The episode closes with a practical editorial takeaway: AI security concerns are already shaping risk discussions, but concern alone does not amount to readiness.