A recent report by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike reveals a significant 150% surge in China’s cyber espionage activities in 2024. The report highlights an aggressive increase in cyber operations, particularly targeting key industries and leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance attacks.
The 2025 Global Threat Report from CrowdStrike indicates that cyber operations linked to China saw a substantial uptick, with attacks on the financial services, media, manufacturing, and industrial sectors rising by 200% to 300% compared to the previous year. This escalation underscores the growing sophistication and scale of these attacks.
U.S. officials have frequently warned about China-backed cyber threats aimed at American intellectual property and critical infrastructure. The new report adds to concerns about the increasing use of AI in cyber operations. Adversaries are employing AI-powered tactics, particularly in phishing and impersonation scams. Notably, voice phishing attacks, where perpetrators call victims to extract sensitive information, increased by 442% last year. The report states that adversaries “are using genAI to supercharge insider threats and social engineering.”
The availability of commercial large language models is making cybercriminals more efficient. The report notes, “Easy access to commercial large language models (LLMs) is making adversaries more productive, too.” This access shortens their learning curve and development cycles, allowing them to increase the scale and pace of their activities. As AI-driven cyber tactics become harder to detect, CrowdStrike calls on organizations to strengthen their defenses against these evolving threats.
Despite the increasing use of AI for malicious purposes, the firm describes these advancements as “largely iterative and evolutionary.” CrowdStrike highlights the use of AI to assist clients in anticipating and defending against cyber threats.
