The humans burning out on AI's cyber frontlines

The people at the frontlines of the ongoing barrage of AI-enabled cyberattacks are being pummeled with attacks, vulnerabilities and false alarms. Why it matters: Humans are still at the frontlines of a fight enabled largely by AI — and they're struggling to wade through mountains of threat data to determine who's been hit and which attacks pose a real danger to companies. What they're saying: "The last month has been the longest year of my life," Justin Timothy, threat intelligence consultant at GuidePoint Security, told Axios. Even before "Black October," Timothy was already swamped and dealing with hacker gangs that returned from a seasonal summer lull. These groups specialize in ransomware, essentially attacking the networks of an institution and holding it hostage. While AI is playing a role in many new cyberattacks, the ransomware scourge has already been shutting down pipeline systems, hospitals, education software and other essential services for years. It's only expected to get worse this year as powerful new AI systems are amplifying the capabilities of attackers faster than defenders can insulate vast corners of the unprotected internet. The big picture: The people companies call when they're hacked are being swamped, piling onto the persistent burnout that has plagued the industry. Troy Bettencourt, who leads Palo Alto Networks' global digital forensics and incident response practice, told Axios that demand for his team's services has climbed by double digits over the last six weeks. Unlike past surges tied to historically harmful attacks like SolarWinds , this year's workload has been relentless. "It's just a continuous grind that increases," Bettencourt said. The same heavy workload is happening across the industry, and even Palo Alto Networks' incident response subcontractors are at max capacity, he said. Investigations that could once be handled by a single consultant now require teams of five to 20 people, he said. The company is also pulling employe