08/12/2026
AI is going to change the fi****ms and outdoor industry forever. Unfortunately, it's not just going to make businesses more efficient. It's going to make cybercriminals more effective too.
For years, the biggest cyber threat was often a poorly written phishing email from a stranger. Today, artificial intelligence is changing the game. Criminals can generate professional emails in seconds, clone voices, impersonate owners and executives, create fake invoices, and launch highly targeted attacks at a scale that wasn't possible just a few years ago.
In my opinion, the most catastrophic cyber event facing fi****ms businesses, shooting ranges, manufacturers, hunting operations, outfitters, and sporting clubs isn't simply a data breach. It's the combination of an AI-driven attack that shuts down operations, compromises sensitive customer information, and destroys trust overnight.
Think about what many of our businesses rely on: customer databases, online reservations, event registrations, waiver systems, member information, point-of-sale systems, vendor relationships, payroll, inventory management, security systems, and email communication. A successful cyberattack can impact every one of them simultaneously.
The greatest misconception we still hear is, "We're too small to be a target."
In reality, small and midsized businesses are often the most attractive targets because they frequently lack dedicated cybersecurity personnel, advanced security controls, formal employee training programs, tested backups, or incident response plans. Criminals know this. They are no longer casting a wide net and hoping someone takes the bait. AI allows them to specifically target organizations, employees, owners, bookkeepers, and managers with highly convincing messages designed to create urgency and exploit trust.
The biggest threat today is still phishing, but AI is making phishing dramatically more dangerous. What used to be a poorly written email full of spelling mistakes can now look exactly like a message from Microsoft 365, your banker, your board president, your accountant, your largest customer, or even a family member. Cybercrime is projected to cost the global economy trillions of dollars annually, and phishing continues to be one of the primary ways attackers gain access to businesses.
What concerns me most about the future is that many organizations are spending more time asking whether they should use AI than asking how criminals are already using AI against them.
The businesses most vulnerable are often the ones that:
Do not use multi-factor authentication
Do not routinely test backups
Have no cybersecurity training program
Have no designated cyber leader or accountability
Allow unrestricted access to systems and information
Do not believe cybersecurity is solely an IT responsibility
Cybersecurity is no longer an IT issue.
It's a management issue.
It's a board issue.
It's a business survival issue.
The organizations that will thrive over the next decade won't necessarily be the ones that avoid cyber incidents altogether. They will be the ones that create a strong cyber culture, train employees, test their systems, maintain backup procedures, and prepare for the day something goes wrong.
As advisors, one question we encourage every business owner to ask is:
If AI helped a criminal lock every file, every email account, every customer record, every reservation system, and every financial system in your organization tomorrow morning, how long could you continue operating?
The answer to that question tells you everything you need to know about your cyber preparedness.
****msIndustry
Here's a few Webinars on this topic from the NSSF—The Firearm Industry Trade Association website I thought were interesting.
With a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers, our industry’s voice is strong. Help us make it stronger.
