Synthetic Threats

Synthetic threats are attacks created, amplified, or operated by artificial intelligence.

They do not rely on human scale. They move faster, adapt continuously, and can generate convincing content, identities, and attack paths at machine speed.

What once took a criminal group weeks now takes an automated model minutes.

What Makes a Threat “Synthetic”

A synthetic threat is not just an AI-assisted attack — it is one where AI performs core malicious functions:

• Writing phishing messages

• Generating malware

• Creating fake identities

• Adapting tactics in real time

• Scaling operations across platforms

These systems learn from their failures, iterate, and improve — just like legitimate AI systems.

How Synthetic Threats Are Used

AI-driven threat actors now deploy synthetic systems to:

Run mass social engineering campaigns
Thousands of personalised phishing messages generated automatically.

Impersonate people and organisations
Deepfakes, voice cloning, and AI-generated documents used to bypass trust.

Probe defences at scale
Models test endpoints, APIs, and workflows for weaknesses continuously.

Evade detection
AI rewrites payloads and communication patterns to avoid security tools.

This is no longer “script kiddie” behaviour. It is autonomous adversarial software.

Why Traditional Security Struggles

Most security tools are designed to stop known patterns.

Synthetic threats are designed to create new ones.

They change language, infrastructure, and behaviour constantly — meaning static rules, signatures, and blacklists fall behind almost immediately.

By the time a threat is identified, thousands of variants may already exist.

Early Signs of Synthetic Attacks

Indicators include:

• Unusual volumes of similar but slightly altered messages

• Rapidly rotating accounts and infrastructure

• AI-like writing patterns in phishing or extortion attempts

• Fake identities appearing across platforms simultaneously

• Behaviour that adapts when blocked

These are the fingerprints of automated adversaries.

How Fortaris Responds

Fortaris does not just track attacks — it tracks the systems behind them.

We identify:

• AI-generated abuse patterns

• Model-driven behaviour shifts

• Cross-platform coordination

• Emerging synthetic threat toolchains

This allows organisations to see attacks forming before they explode at scale.

Final Thought

The next generation of cyber threats will not be written by people.

They will be generated, trained, and deployed by machines.

Defending against synthetic threats requires seeing AI as both a tool — and a weapon.