Censys<\/a> fifth annual State of the Internet Report shows that exposed AI infrastructure grew 63% in nine months. The report tracks how the Internet is changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIt also identified roughly 134,000 Internet-exposed hosts running industrial control systems (ICS). About 70% of them were found on consumer and mobile networks. As a result, identifying their owners and addressing exposure becomes harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For this year\u2019s report, the Censys Advanced Research Collective (ARC) analyzed historical and real-time data from the Censys Internet Map. The map continuously monitors global Internet infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overall, the findings point to a vast and volatile Internet. AI infrastructure is expanding rapidly. Industrial exposures persist. Software maintenance progresses unevenly. In addition, distinct geographic patterns in threat infrastructure show how different parts of the Internet support different types of attacker activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Internet-facing AI tools reached nearly 268,000 systems. This includes chatbots. It also includes the behind-the-scenes tools that connect AI to data, applications and user accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among AI products, n8n is the most commonly exposed. The workflow automation platform appears on nearly 114,000 hosts. OpenClaw, a personal AI agent assistant, follows with about 54,000. Meanwhile, the U.S. (62,687), China (42,511) and Germany (31,222) account for just over half of all exposed AI infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report also looked at industrial systems. As of 2026, roughly 38% of the exposed global ICS landscape is in North America. Europe follows with 32%, and Asia with 25%. Roughly 70% of hosts running ICS devices and services globally are consistently found exposed on consumer and mobile networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Threat infrastructure shows a different split. China is home to 36.6% of malicious host-level infrastructure, such as C2s and remote access tooling. The U.S. hosts 16.8%. By contrast, the U.S. hosts 45.5% of web-based threats, including phishing and other deceptive pages. China hosts 20.9% of the web-based threats observed by Censys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report also examined software updates. Four products were studied: Progress Telerik Report Server, Jenkins, Cleo MFT and Microsoft SharePoint Server. Across all four, organizations adopted newer software versions. However, the oldest versions remained largely unchanged throughout the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Internet is constantly changing, and understanding how it changes is critical to modern cybersecurity,\u201d said Zakir Durumeric, Co-Founder and CEO of Censys. \u201cNew technologies such as AI introduce new layers of infrastructure. Identifying and continuously monitoring Internet-facing systems is essential to realizing AI\u2019s value without introducing unmanaged risk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Censys 2026 State of the Internet Report is available to download now<\/a>. It offers a closer look at how exposed AI infrastructure and other Internet-facing systems are changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Censys fifth annual State of the Internet Report shows […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":108052,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,9621],"tags":[2725],"contributor":[9732],"class_list":["post-108050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","category-emerging-technologies","tag-artificial-intelligence","contributor-news-desk"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Zakir-Durumeric.jpg.jpeg","author_info":{"display_name":"Lubna","author_link":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/author\/lubna\/"},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t