Mohamed Osman, Head of MSP, Mint Group.
As of April 2025, more than 200 new threat detections were added to Microsoft Defender, and between April 2024 and April 2025, the company topped $4 billion in fraud attempts, of which many were AI generated.[1][2] Cyber security is moving at a speed few companies can keep up with, and AI has become both the attacker’s weapon and the defender’s shield. Generative AI is helping attackers to scale campaigns and automate social engineering and even produce phishing content so polished it is virtually indistinguishable from legitimate conversations. At the same time, AI-driven anomaly detection and predictive modelling are helping defenders stop attacks faster, trace root causes and build intelligence that evolves and adapts.
The landscape, for lack of a better word, is a swamp of deepfakes, engineered bots and automated social engineering campaigns that are changing the risk equation. Where phishing e-mails once betrayed themselves with spelling errors and clumsy grammar, the AI variants are perfectly tuned to trick even experienced professionals. The result is that the weakest link – the human being – is more vulnerable than ever.
“Most breaches involve human error as people, stressed and tired, fall for phishing e-mails and make the fateful click, or use weak passwords or misconfigure systems,” says Mohamed Osman, Head of MSP, Mint Group. “That makes security training non-negotiable. Modern tools now combine phishing simulations, real-time training modules and human risk intelligence to build resilience at the individual level.”
For example, if an employee clicks on a simulated phishing link, they are immediately enrolled in short, targeted training. Their responses are tracked and scored, which then gives the chief information security officer (CISO) insight into where risk sits inside the business and how to mitigate it.
This is where Mint brings its unique blend of human-centred design into security. Training is a consistent process that adapts to each employee’s behaviour and awareness is embedded into the culture of the business. It’s an approach that allows the company to turn their weakest link into their first line of defence.
“Another concern is the size of the digital estate,” says Osman. “Identity has become a primary attack surface so privileged access management is critical to ensure that only the right people who have the correct level of access can reach sensitive systems.”
Equally important are machine identities – API keys, service accounts and IOT credentials often outnumber human identities in enterprise environments. If compromised, these non-human accounts allow attackers to move laterally, and they often go undetected. This is where zero-trust architecture is invaluable as it works on the principle of ‘never trust, always verify’ and every access request is treated as potentially hostile until verified. With strong authentication, least-privilege access and network micro-segmentation, zero trust limits the blast radius of any breach.
“Cyber resilience doesn’t stop at architecture, though,” says Osman. “Investing in continuous monitoring through a security operations centre (SOC) means the business benefits from real-time analytics, threat hunting and behavioural analysis to identify and contain incidents before they escalate. Importantly, the SOC doesn’t operate in isolation as threat intelligence is shared across peers and even competitors to enable a collective defence against common adversaries.”
The reality today is that generative AI isn’t going to stop being the criminal’s best weapon in the war for your data and defences. It will keep on making attacks faster and more convincing, but it will also give defenders sharper tools than ever before. Thriving comes down to combining advanced defences with cultural resilience and the expertise of a partner like Mint.
“When you can trust in your service provider to help you govern access with zero trust, maintain vigilance and build exceptional security awareness, you will have a strong and resilient posture,” concludes Osman. “Security isn’t a product, it’s a posture, and we can help you build it.”
