Artificial intelligence is changing the malware landscape, in particular by acting as an accelerant: It makes known attack methods faster, cheaper, more scalable and more accessible for criminals with less technical know-how. AI does not automatically mean that there is no more need for human to make decisions and it doesn’t necessary lead to the creation of entirely new categories of malware. Nevertheless, the AV-TEST experts have been noticing an uptick in the number of malware samples and attack tactics powered by AI.
According to Erik Heyland, Head of Testing Labs at AV-TEST, “studies across the globe indicate that there are traces of AI-driven polymorphism in nearly 75 percent of newly discovered malware today. It’s something we’re seeing in our testing and also on AV-ATLAS, our threat intelligence platform, which records and publishes data on the actual threats out there in real time. This means that there will be nearly 100 million new malware samples added this year, and we’re only talking about Windows here. As of September 2026, there were already more than 1 billion Windows samples in our detection databases!”. […]
AV-TEST is an independent supplier of services in the fields of IT Security and Antivirus Research, focusing on the detection and analysis of the latest malicious software and its use in comprehensive comparative testing of security products.
Due to the timeliness of the testing data, malware can instantly be analyzed and categorized, trends within virus development can be detected early, and IT-security solutions can be tested and certified. The AV-TEST Institute’s results provide an exclusive basis of information helping vendors to optimize their products, special interest magazines to publish research data, and end users to make good product choices.
AV-TEST has operated out of Magdeburg (Germany) since 2004 and employs more than 30 team members, professionals with extensive practical experience. The AV-TEST laboratories include 500 client and server systems, where more than 3,500 terabyte of independently-collected test data, containing both malicious and harmless sample information, are stored and processed.
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