AI Cuts Hacking Costs as US Healthcare Breaches Averaged $7.4 Million in 2025
Updated
Updated · Financial Times · Aug 27
AI Cuts Hacking Costs as US Healthcare Breaches Averaged $7.4 Million in 2025
3 articles · Updated · Financial Times · Aug 27
Summary
AI-augmented attacks are making cyber intrusions faster and cheaper, while forcing defenders to spend more as models uncover vulnerabilities and generate exploit code in a fraction of the old time and cost.
Open-weight models run on private hardware lack the safeguards found in mainstream subscription tools, widening access to advanced attack techniques beyond trained cybersecurity professionals.
US healthcare logged 642 ransomware and data-breach incidents reported to the FBI in 2025—more than any other critical-infrastructure sector—with average losses of $7.4 million per breach.
Defenses are lagging: the author estimates AI systems remain two to three years away from patching software at the pace needed to match the surge in vulnerabilities.
US public-sector resilience has weakened after federal funding for the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center ended in September 2025 and CISA was cut back, undermining the shared defenses the author says are needed.