Most cybersecurity strategies still revolve around protecting data at rest and in transit. But there’s a growing attack surface few are ready for: data in use.
This is the data actively displayed and interacted with on screens—documents being edited, spreadsheets opened briefly, email previews, credential input forms, session tokens, and everything else that touches the user interface. Traditional security can’t see it. And that’s exactly where AI-powered malware is evolving to dominate.
AI Malware Doesn’t Just Steal Screens – It Steals Context
This isn’t about a hacker snapping a blurry screenshot. AI malware observes, absorbs, and reconstructs everything you interact with in real time. It leverages screen capture, keystroke logging, clipboard scraping, and behavioral telemetry—not just to steal snippets, but to build entire databases from your device activity:
- Every spreadsheet you open, even briefly? Indexed.
- Each document previewed or tabbed through? Captured in full.
- Your keystrokes? Parsed into structured credentials, server paths, internal system names.
- Your user session? Transformed into a complete organizational map.
This isn’t surveillance. It’s automated exfiltration and reconstruction—the formation of a high-fidelity model of your business, assembled invisibly and continuously.
Building a Business Blueprint from the Endpoint Out
Here’s how modern AI-powered malware works:
- Watches your activity across apps and files
- Ingests documents in real time, not just what’s onscreen
- Identifies structured data—names, project codes, IP ranges, client records
- Pipes all inputs into a remote database, mapping your business layer by layer
What you thought were fragments—quick views, transient sessions, closed tabs—become part of a comprehensive dataset attackers can query, correlate, and monetize. They aren’t just stealing files. They’re building your business’s digital twin from your own endpoint. And all of it happens without triggering traditional detection.
The Endpoint Is the Battlefield and Most Organizations Are Unarmed
Most security tools weren’t built for this. Signature-based antivirus doesn’t see it. Network filters can’t stop it. Even advanced XDR and EDR systems often miss malware that stays passive and lives in the user session. Once it’s there, AI malware doesn’t need to escalate privileges or run exploits. It simply watches what the user sees and types—then turns it into actionable intelligence for attackers. This is especially dangerous for sectors like healthcare, finance, government, and law, where every document, every credential, every patient or client record carries immense value.
SentryBay’s Armored Client: Data Protection Where It’s Needed Most
SentryBay’s Armored Client is built to shut down this exact class of threat. It doesn’t wait for signs of compromise—it enforces protection before malware can extract anything useful.
- Anti-Keylogging – Replaces actual keystrokes with randomized input. Even if captured, the data is gibberish.
- Anti-Screen Capture – Blocks malware from grabbing or rendering anything shown onscreen.
- Data In Use Obfuscation – Screenshots and data flows contain no usable information.
- Selective Application Trust – Allows legitimate screen sharing while denying unauthorized surveillance.
- Real-Time Enforcement – Protection applies continuously at the system level, even in zero-trust, BYOD, or unmanaged environments.
It works across:
- IGEL OS-powered devices
- Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD)
- Windows 365 environments
Tim Royston-Webb, CEO of SentryBay, explains: “AI-powered malware doesn’t hack. It listens. It watches. And it learns. These tools are capable of turning simple screen activity and keystrokes into entire databases of business intelligence—documents, passwords, system layouts, everything. At SentryBay, we built Armored Client to stop this kind of data harvesting at the source. When attackers can’t use what they steal, your business stays safe.”
Organizations Must Act Now
The threat is here. It is persistent, intelligent, and entirely focused on what users do—not just where the data sits. And in the era of AI-driven infostealers, data in use is the new prize.
Healthcare systems, legal practices, insurers, and global enterprises cannot afford to treat endpoint protection as optional. The loss of a spreadsheet is no longer just a file—it’s a feed into an adversary’s machine-learning model.
If you don’t secure your data in use, you’re handing over your business on a platter. Protect your users. Protect your reputation. Stop AI-powered malware with SentryBay’s Armored Client.
