Richard van Hooijdonk
Cybercrime in the AI Era
Criminals use AI to strike faster, on a larger scale and with more convincing tactics. This keynote shows what they do today, what lies ahead and how your organisation puts AI to work in its defence and builds resilience.
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As attacks grow smarter and faster, defences must keep pace. AI makes cybercrime a challenge for the whole organisation.
Cybercrime in the AI Era covers how criminals already use AI and how an organisation becomes resilient. Richard has spoken on this subject to police and defence organisations. For a long time, cybercrime was a specialism. Breaking in, defrauding people or extorting money took know-how, either your own or hired in. AI puts that knowledge within reach of many more criminals: convincing phishing in many languages, a voice cloned from a brief recording, AI agents that find vulnerabilities by themselves. Criminal groups operate as businesses and grow like tech companies. The next stage is already taking shape: attacks carried out largely by AI, crime with physical consequences through connected robots and cars, and, in time, powerful quantum computers that could break some widely used forms of encryption, so that data stolen in encrypted form today becomes readable later. Defenders have the same technology, plus knowledge of their own organisation, partners around the world and people who stay alert. This keynote shows what criminals can do with AI, where it is heading and how your organisation builds resilience. Who will put AI to work faster: the attacker or your organisation?
How criminals use AI
What AI changes about phishing, fraud, extortion and break-ins, and how criminals organise their operations.
Download the keynotePDF, 3 A4 pages, 1.2 MB Cybercrime in the AI Era- 01
Crime-as-a-service
Criminals have long paid for tools and know-how. AI adds convincing phishing in many languages and models stripped of their safeguards.
- 02
Deepfakes and voice clones
A fake voice or video of an executive or relative. Telling the real person apart from the imitation is getting harder.
A deepfake uses AI to create or alter images or sound, making someone appear to say or do something that never happened. Voice cloning is the audio version: AI copies a voice from a short video online. Criminals impersonate executives demanding urgent payments, or deceive families by pretending to be children in distress. There have been reported cases in which an employee transferred millions after a video call featuring AI-generated impersonations of colleagues. A voice can now be converted during the call itself, allowing fraudsters to respond live in someone else's voice. What you see and hear no longer proves who is on the other end.
- 03
Fraud on an industrial scale
Synthetic identities, fake online shops and investment scams in which chatbots help manipulate many victims at once.
Online fraud takes time: criminals must earn a victim's trust. AI takes on some of that work, letting fewer people reach more victims. A synthetic identity combines real and invented details into a fictitious person, sometimes with an AI-generated face and identity document. Criminals use it to open accounts. Fake online shops can be set up quickly with AI-generated text and photos. In investment scams, chatbots help sustain conversations with many victims, sometimes for weeks, until they trust the scheme enough to invest. Banks and platforms use AI to spot unusual patterns, such as a new account immediately moving large sums onwards, and share those signals with one another and the police.
- 04
AI that finds vulnerabilities
AI reads code, probes systems and finds flaws that went unnoticed for years. Criminals are experimenting with it too.
A vulnerability is a weakness in software or settings that an attacker can exploit to break in, steal data or disrupt operations. Security teams have long used scanners to find them. AI now helps by reading code, probing systems and testing possible entry points. It can expose flaws that went unnoticed for years, and criminals are experimenting with the same techniques. This could shorten the time between a vulnerability becoming public and its first exploitation. An attacker who finds an unknown flaw can break in before a security update even exists.
- 05
The ransomware business
Criminal groups operate like businesses, using AI to research targets, negotiate and extort money with stolen data.
Ransomware encrypts an organisation's files. Criminals demand payment for the decryption key, with no guarantee of recovery. Often they steal data first and threaten to publish it. The groups behind these attacks run like businesses, with developers, partners who carry out attacks, a helpdesk and negotiators. AI helps them research targets, search stolen files for sensitive information and write threats. Some groups now skip encryption altogether: they simply steal data and threaten to make it public. This is faster, attracts less attention and hits an organisation where it hurts: by damaging customer trust.
- 06
The fake job applicant
A remote applicant has a fabricated CV, a stolen identity and sometimes an AI-generated face. Once hired, they hold the keys.
- 07
AI itself under attack
Hidden instructions, poisoned training data and stolen models. An organisation's own AI becomes a target.
The more an organisation uses AI, the more attractive that AI becomes as a target. Prompt injection hides instructions in an email, document or webpage that an AI assistant treats as commands, perhaps to forward confidential data. Data poisoning inserts misleading examples into the data a model learns from. A trained model is also valuable in its own right and can be stolen. The risk grows with AI agents that read emails, access systems and take action independently. Deceive one of these agents and it can do an intruder's work with a colleague's access rights.
- 08
Fake news as a weapon
A fabricated statement attributed to an executive or a fabricated disaster photo: AI disinformation can move share prices and damage reputations.
- 09
A way in through the supply chain
One infected update or software component can hit thousands of customers. AI helps attackers find a way into the supply chain.
With AI, defenders can monitor millions of signals at once and see an attack coming. When people, partners and AI work as one team, security becomes the foundation for innovating with confidence.
Richard van Hooijdonk
The future of crime
Where crime could be in five to fifteen years: attacks that run themselves, broken encryption and crime that reaches beyond the screen.
- 10
Future scenarioThe attack that runs itself
AI agents could run entire attacks: scouting, breaking in, finding data and negotiating, against thousands of targets at once.
- 11
Future scenarioWhen encryption breaks
A future quantum computer could break widely used encryption. Criminals and states are already collecting encrypted data.
- 12
Future scenarioCrime beyond the screen
Robots, drones and driverless cars will coordinate their own work. Hacking their controls could disrupt streets and warehouses.
The other side critical infrastructure
Why power, water, healthcare and ports attract attackers, where crime meets conflict and how much surveillance a safe society will accept.
- 13
Critical infrastructure as a target
Power, water, hospitals, ports and networks partly rely on old control systems. Now connected to the internet, they can be reached remotely.
Critical infrastructure keeps society running: electricity, drinking water, healthcare, payments, ports and telecoms. Many facilities use control systems built to last decades, never designed for the internet. Remote management now makes them remotely accessible. Criminals see an opportunity: disruption can command a large ransom. The same AI technology that helps a security team find and fix weaknesses in control systems helps an attacker find and exploit them. An attack can stop pumps or cut power to a neighbourhood. Protecting this infrastructure therefore requires security measures that extend beyond the office network.
- 14
Criminals working for states
Governments use criminal groups to break in, sabotage and spy. To the victim, it looks like ordinary cybercrime.
A state actor is a government or a group working on its behalf. Increasingly, these actors leave visible operations to criminals: hackers breaking into networks or hired accomplices stealing data and shutting down systems. Europol describes criminal networks acting as extensions of states seeking to cause disruption. For the organisation under attack, it looks like ordinary cybercrime, even when the aim is espionage or sabotage. AI makes it easier to research targets and create disinformation. A small attack on one company may belong to a much larger pattern, visible only when businesses, government, police and intelligence services pool their signals.
- 15
Security and freedom
A safe society faces choices about surveillance. AI can track network traffic and human behaviour in ever greater detail.
The resilient organisation
How your organisation defends itself against criminals using AI: human-AI teams, new roles, a board that sets direction and partners around the world.
- 16
The AI-first organisation
In security, AI does the repetitive and predictive work, and spots threats faster than people ever could. The team judges and chooses.
- 17
Defence with AI
AI spots unusual network behaviour, stolen accounts and misused supplier access, and can act within seconds.
Security teams receive large numbers of alerts each day, often mostly noise. AI helps distinguish real threats. It learns normal network behaviour and flags anomalies: an account downloading large quantities of files in the middle of the night, or a supplier suddenly accessing systems it has no reason to enter. When an attack is clear, AI can block an account or disconnect a device within seconds. In AI-first security, AI is the first line of defence: monitoring, sorting and investigating. Analysts judge uncertain cases and make major decisions. Next come defensive AI agents that independently track and contain attacks while people supervise.
- 18
New roles in security
Specialists who attack their own AI to test it, people overseeing defensive AI agents, and analysts working alongside AI.
AI changes the work of security teams. Existing roles gain new responsibilities, and new specialisms emerge: red teamers attack their own AI systems to find weaknesses before criminals do; specialists assess which AI applications are safe enough to deploy; supervisors of defensive AI agents decide what those agents may block independently. Analysts change too. AI sorts and investigates, while people choose, judge and intervene. Responsibilities extend beyond IT: finance teams need to recognise fake payment instructions, and HR needs to establish that a job applicant actually exists.
- 19
Resilience in the boardroom
Rules make boards responsible for digital security. In an AI-first organisation, they also decide what AI may do independently.
Digital security is now a board responsibility. Network and information security rules make board members in many organisations accountable for managing cyber risks; they must understand the risks themselves and oversee the actions taken. AI that acts independently adds another dimension. An AI-first organisation starts every process by asking what AI can do. Its board also sets the permissions for systems that react faster than people: which data they see and what they may do alone. A defensive AI agent might block an account while an employee handles an urgent delivery. Digital security directly affects service and continuity, making it part of strategy.
- 20
People as the first defence
Many attacks begin with a person. When reporting concerns is normal, every employee becomes a sensor.
Many attacks start with a person: a click, a phone call, a payment under pressure. That is why culture matters so much. An employee who immediately reports a mistaken click gives the security team time to act before serious damage occurs. Shame and silence give attackers time instead. A culture of reporting without blame turns each employee into a sensor. AI makes this role more significant by personalising attacks: a message about yesterday's project, or a leader's voice on the phone. Technology takes on some of the burden, for example through passkeys that will not work on a fake website. An alert colleague's judgement remains the final safety net.
- 21
A future academy for security
Attackers change tactics quickly. Organisations train their own people in a future academy where AI plays the attacker.
- 22
Stronger together against crime
Criminals cooperate globally. Defenders do too, through international ecosystems of businesses, researchers, police and governments.
Criminals may plan an attack in one country, carry it out in a second and collect the proceeds in a third. No organisation or country can stop it alone. A resilient organisation belongs to an ecosystem that crosses borders: sector information-sharing centres, computer emergency response teams connected worldwide, and security companies and researchers sharing new criminal tactics quickly. Europol and Interpol bring police, judicial authorities and businesses together to take criminal services offline. An international initiative by police and businesses gives ransomware victims free decryption keys to recover their files. Your organisation's resilience increasingly depends on the quality of its ecosystem.
On stage
A packed conference hall, a televised panel discussion, a police summit in Dubai.
A selection of over 400 clients
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Frequently asked questions
Who is this keynote for?
For organisations that want to defend themselves against criminals using AI: board meetings, security conferences, staff events, IT and security team kick-offs and sector gatherings. The talk suits a mixed audience of board members, managers, specialists and employees who handle emails, payments and customer data every day, with audiences of 30 to 3,000. It also works for events for staff, clients and business partners.
What will the audience take away?
A clear picture of how criminals use AI today, including cloned voices and fake job applicants. A view of what comes next: attacks carried out by AI, crime through robots and cars, and quantum computers that could break today's encryption. And a picture of a resilient organisation, with human-AI teams, new roles, a board that sets direction and partners around the world.
Will the keynote frighten the audience?
No. It explains what is happening without disaster stories, with particular attention to what defenders can do with the same technology. Understanding how an attack works helps people recognise it sooner. The audience leaves with a clear view and confidence, rather than fear.
How does this differ from The AI Revolution?
The AI Revolution covers what AI can do and how it changes organisations and people; criminal use is one topic within it. In Cybercrime in the AI Era, criminal use is the whole story: deepfakes, fraud, ransomware, the future of crime, critical infrastructure and the resilient organisation. If you are unsure which fits, we can advise during the introductory call.
Is the keynote adapted to our sector?
Yes. An introductory call covers the audience, the sector and the questions on people's minds. The examples reflect their work: healthcare executives hear different examples from people working in banking or managing power and water networks. Each sector also has its own page.
How long is the keynote?
30, 45 or 60 minutes, and longer if you wish, with time for audience questions. For more depth, there are masterclasses, boardroom sessions for executives, board members and managers, and workshops for all employees.
Can the keynote be delivered in English or online?
Yes, in Dutch or English, in person or online. Richard has spoken in more than 30 countries.
What does Cybercrime in the AI Era cost?
Fees start from €3,500 (webinar). The price depends on location, duration and any customisation you would like. Send your date and a brief description of the audience, and our proposal will give the fee for your event.
Cybercrime in the AI Era for your event
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