Adversaries Leverage AI for Vulnerability Exploitation, Augmented Operations, and Initial Access


Since our February 2026 report on AI-related threat activity, Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) has continued to track a maturing transition from nascent AI-enabled operations to the industrial-scale application of generative models within adversarial workflows. This report, based on insights derived from Mandiant incident response engagements, Gemini, and GTIG’s proactive research, highlights the dual nature of the current threat environment where AI serves as both a sophisticated engine for adversary operations and a high-value target for attacks. We explore the following developments: Vulnerability Discovery and Exploit Generation; AI-Augmented Development for Defense Evasion; Autonomous Malware Operations; AI-Augmented Research and IO: Obfuscated LLM Access; Supply Chain Attacks.

Read more…
Source: Google Threat Intelligence Group


Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • APT groups aren’t all from Russia, China, and North Korea

    October 28, 2020

    Advance persistent threat (APT) hacker groups are often assumed to be state-supported organisations such as China’s APT10 aka Stone Panda, Russia’s APT28 aka Fancy Bear, or Vietnam’s APT32 aka Ocean Lotus. However, these and other groups are often identified and named by cyber intelligence firms with strong links to their national government. FireEye and Crowdstrike in ...

  • Enel Group hit by ransomware again, Netwalker demands $14 million

    October 27, 2020

    Multinational energy company Enel Group has been hit by a ransomware attack for the second time this year. This time by Netwalker, who is asking a $14 million ransom for the decryption key and to not release several terabytes of stolen data. Enel is one of the largest players in the European energy sector, with more ...

  • Insikt Group Discovers Global Credential Harvesting Campaign Using FiercePhish Open Source Framework

    October 27, 2020

    Recorded Future’s Insikt Group discovered a wide-reaching phishing campaign utilizing the FiercePhish open source offensive phishing framework. The campaign, which is hosted on Russian domain infrastructure but does not target users in Russia, is globally harvesting credentials from a variety of organizations in the public and private sectors. This campaign, coordinated using asherintartradingcom, has been ...

  • FBI: Hackers stole government source code via SonarQube instances

    October 27, 2020

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a flash alert warning of hackers stealing data from U.S. government agencies and enterprise organizations via internet-exposed and insecure SonarQube instances. SonarQube is an open-source platform for automated code quality auditing and static analysis to discover bugs and security vulnerabilities in projects using 27 programming languages. Vulnerable SonarQube servers have ...

  • Risks in IoT Supply Chain

    October 26, 2020

    The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of IoT devices. As businesses slowly reopen during the pandemic, contactless IoT devices such as point of sale (POS) terminals and body temperature cameras have been widely adopted to keep business operations safe. Palo Alto Networks research shows 89% of IT decision-makers globally reported that the number of ...

  • KashmirBlack botnet behind attacks on CMSs like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, others

    October 26, 2020

    A highly sophisticated botnet is believed to have infected hundreds of thousands of websites by attacking their underlying content management system (CMS) platforms. Named KashmirBlack, the botnet started operating in November 2019. Security researchers from Imperva —who analyzed the botnet last week in a two-part series— said the botnet’s primary purpose appears to be to infect websites ...