SAN DIEGO—Cybercriminals are leveraging artificial intelligence, and experts warn it’s only the beginning. 

“At IBM we saw a 200% increase in phishing emails that were delivering info stealers which quietly harvest the information in the back and then send it back to the attackers,” said Jen Mack, Global Director of Quantum Safe Transformation Services at IBM Consulting. “This is what’s really fueling credential theft,” she said, warning of problems now and down the road.

“One of the biggest issues that we’re going to start dealing with right now is customer trust. Customers who feel that our organizations can’t protect their data, their identity, from fraud and manipulation—that’s going to start eroding trust in the entire system, and what are we going to be doing about that?” Mack told the “Navigating the New Frontiers of Cybersecurity” session April 26 at Smarter Faster Payments 2026. 

“Longer term, I think the bigger challenge that we’re going to be facing is around accountability. The regulations that we have, the policies we’re writing internally, these were not created for the type of AI that we’re dealing with now,” said Mack. 

Ben Meyer, FBI Supervisory Special Agent, San Diego Division, shared the bureau’s take on today’s cybercrime issues.

“From the FBI’s perspective, ransomware remains our priority cybercriminal threat. Not just because of the financial loss—that’s relatively underreported to us—but the massive disruption that ransomware causes, especially when it targets critical infrastructure, government entities,” said Meyer. And that’s just for starters.

“On the financial loss side, business email compromise is a massive, massive issue,” Meyer said, noting the more than $3 billion in BEC losses reported in 2025 to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). 

Marie Mui, Executive Director, Merchant Services, Corporate Technology, Media and Telecom at Wells Fargo offered additional cautions for the audience of payments professionals. 

In summarizing the panel discussion, Mui, who moderated, said, “I think a key takeaway here is that at the end of the day, your customers trust you. They’re not going to blame the vendor; they’re going to blame you if their information is compromised. That’s eroding trust of your customer base, eroding your brand—two of the most valuable assets of your company right there, because of that vulnerability.”