The rise of the evasive adversary

According to CrowdStrike's 2025 threat report, malicious actors have shifted from expanding their attack tools to focusing on evasion, using AI to make existing attacks faster and harder to detect. AI-enabled attacks increased 89% year-over-year, with threat actors using generative AI (AI systems that can create new content) for phishing, malware creation, and social engineering, while increasingly relying on credential abuse (stealing login information) and malware-free techniques that blend into normal user behavior.