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World desk4 min

Reduce AI Cyber Risk at Work With These 7 Safeguards

AI can help criminals with fraud, and AI systems can have their own attack surface. These seven safeguards help businesses reduce exposure and prepare to recover.
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Protect your business from AI-related cyber risk by strengthening account security, backups, exposed services, staff reporting, identity checks, incident readiness, and oversight of the AI systems you use. Criminals can use AI to assist fraud and social engineering; separately, attackers can target AI and machine-learning systems your business operates. The FBI identifies both risks, but the official guidance cited here does not provide a current quantified estimate of how much AI increases ordinary business attack rates.

What “AI cyber threat” means for a business

AI can help criminals create more convincing phishing or impersonation attempts. It can also create a security attack surface of its own when a business uses machine-learning systems: NIST’s finalized 2025 adversarial machine-learning report describes attack types including evasion and data poisoning. These are related but distinct problems. The first calls for resilient business security practices; the second also requires managing the AI system, its data, and its connections.

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The FBI’s Artificial Intelligence resource states: “As the public and private industry adoption of AI increases, the AI/ML attack surface will increase, along with the potential physical and economic costs of a successful attack.” That is an institutional warning, not a quantified forecast of attack growth.

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Seven safeguards to put in place

1. Require phishing-resistant MFA on high-impact accounts

Prioritize email, VPN access, administrator accounts, executive accounts, and any identity that can reach critical systems. CISA recommends MFA for these high-value services; the FBI’s 2026 Operation Winter SHIELD guidance describes FIDO2-compliant security keys and device-bound passkeys as options for authentication, remote access, and critical systems.

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Check that your identity provider, devices, and recovery process support the method you choose. A security key is one implementation option, not a complete security program, and MFA does not prevent every kind of account compromise. Assign an owner to review enrollment, lost-device recovery, and access for departing staff.

2. Keep backups that can actually be restored

CISA’s StopRansomware guidance recommends encrypting backup data and making backups immutable so they cannot be altered or deleted. Cover the organization’s data infrastructure, not only the most visible user files, and restrict who can administer backup systems.

Exercise restoration with representative data and systems. Record how long recovery takes, what dependencies must be restored first, and who can authorize it. Backups support recovery; they do not by themselves prevent data theft or eliminate disruption.

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3. Reduce unnecessary internet-facing access

Review services reachable from the internet, disable those no longer needed, and restrict services that must remain to people with a business need. This is general attack-surface reduction, not a control uniquely aimed at AI-driven attacks. CISA’s ransomware guidance recommends this approach.

Have the technical owner document what remains exposed and why, then revisit the list when systems or business needs change. Removing unused access can reduce opportunities for compromise without requiring a new security product.

4. Make suspicious messages easy to report

AI-assisted phishing may be more polished and harder to distinguish from legitimate email. CISA’s LockBit advisory discusses that risk and recommends practical phishing-awareness training; it also identifies external-email warning banners as a possible measure. Do not make spelling or grammar mistakes the test for whether a message is malicious.

Give employees one clear reporting route, such as a reporting button or a monitored security contact, and make it easy to use quickly. Encourage prompt reporting rather than blame: early notice gives the team a chance to contain a compromised account or warn others.

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5. Independently verify surprising, high-impact requests

A realistic voice or video is not proof of identity. The FBI describes deepfakes and notes that the time and resources needed to create or use convincing synthetic content have decreased. For unusual requests involving payments, credentials, or sensitive data, apply your existing dual-approval or call-back procedures.

Verify through a contact method already on file, not a phone number, link, or reply address supplied in the unexpected request. This is a prudent application of the impersonation risk, not a specific FBI protocol. Make the process usable under pressure by defining who can approve exceptions and how staff can reach the verifier.

6. Exercise incident response and business continuity

CISA’s corporate leadership guidance treats incident readiness as a leadership responsibility. Senior leaders should take part in response exercises, set a low threshold for reporting suspicious activity, and identify and test continuity arrangements for critical business functions.

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In an exercise, decide who has authority to isolate systems, who coordinates technical response, and who handles communications with banks, customers, and regulators when appropriate. Test how essential operations continue if key systems are unavailable. Notification duties depend on jurisdiction and sector, so identify the rules that apply to your organization rather than assuming one universal deadline.

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7. Bring AI systems into your security risk management

List the AI tools and machine-learning systems used or operated by the business, including important data flows, suppliers, users, and connections to other systems. Before deployment or a major change, involve the security owner and clarify who can access inputs, outputs, training data, and administrative controls.

NIST’s finalized 2025 report provides a taxonomy and mitigation terminology for adversarial machine-learning risks, including evasion and data poisoning. Use it to frame questions about how a system could be manipulated and what safeguards or monitoring are appropriate; it is not a binding regulation. For AI-related incident and vulnerability coordination, CISA’s 2025 JCDC AI cybersecurity collaboration playbook describes voluntary information sharing.

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Who should own the work?

For each safeguard, name an accountable owner, the systems or business functions covered, and a review point. A small business without dedicated security staff can start with CISA’s resources for small and medium businesses and bring in qualified external help where internal capacity is insufficient. Prioritize controls by the potential business impact, what they protect, compatibility with existing systems, recovery needs, and the effort required to operate them over time.

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