4 Critical Threats Giving Attackers the Advantage
Dark Reading, Thursday, June 4th, 2026
Gartner's John Watts names deepfakes, supply chain risks, prompt injections, and AI app compromises as top attacker-favoring threats.
Per Gartner analyst John Watts, the four most pressing enterprise threats where attackers currently hold the advantage are deepfakes, software supply chain risks, prompt injections, and AI application compromises, because defensive capabilities haven't caught up.
For deepfakes, a layered authentication approach can stop attacks without needing to detect the deepfake itself, since a failed authentication check thwarts the attacker.
Prompt injection is intensifying with the growth of AI agents, and Google data showed a 32% increase in indirect prompt injection attacks between November 2025 and February 2026.
AI application compromises are exemplified by OpenClaw, a popular open source AI framework with numerous critical vulnerabilities deployed widely and often insecurely.