Did you know Hackers Steal Data in Hours Without Encryption as AI Tools Speed Up Cyber Attacks

 

According to new findings from ReliaQuest’s Annual Cyber Threat Report, hackers only need 48 minutes on average to locate and access key assets after breaching a network, and within a few hours, they steal the data and leave without bothering to encrypt it. Now attackers are also using advanced AI tools for their attacks and the quickest exfiltration time recorded by the hackers was just 4 hours and 29 minutes.

ReliaQuest reported that cyber threats have become more common but quicker as well and defenders do not get enough time to detect and respond when critical data is being stolen. Mist ransomware attacks involve encryption because 80% of the time, attackers only focus on the exfiltration of data. The fastest encryption reported in 2024 was just six hours. Researchers say that advanced security tools and strong backups have made encryption not that important in cyber attacks. Attackers prefer data exfiltration because it is faster and also because encryption is more complex.  

The researchers also found that 60% of the time, the stolen days are uploaded to legitimate cloud platforms like Mega, Google Drive, or Amazon S3. Organizations need to rethink their strategies because ransomware attacks are going to get more common in 2025. 85% of the data breaches had compromised service accounts which made attackers remain undetected for a long time. 45% of the attacks happen with the abuse of external remote services like VPNs, and drive-by and phishing attacks remain at the top for attackers to gain initial access.