From August–September 2026, Chinese-speaking attackers used an open-source AI penetration testing framework called Cairn to autonomously conduct 25 operations against at least 19 organizations. The attackers weaponized Cairn by pairing it with Chinese AI models Zhipu GLM and DeepSeek.
The attackers supplied a target and a goal, then Cairn planned, executed and recorded results on its own. These attacks achieved unauthorized access or data retrieval at 10 of the targeted organizations, including:
- Accessing dozens of valid credentials
- Mass exposing personal data (exceeding one million records at one organization)
- Retrieving military and government identities
- Creating persistent administrator accounts in a production system
- Modifying a live industry standards-ballot document
Read more…
Source: Palo Alto Unit 42
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Laser-Based Hacking from Afar Goes Beyond Amazon Alexa
November 26, 2020
Imagine someone hacking into an Amazon Alexa device using a laser beam and then doing some online shopping using that person account. This is a scenario presented by a group of researchers who are exploring why digital home assistants and other sensing systems that use sound commands to perform functions can be hacked by light. The ...
- Belden networking giant’s company data stolen in cyberattack
November 25, 2020
Network device manufacturer Belden was hit with a cyberattack that allowed threat actors to steal files containing information about employees and business partners. Belden is a US-based manufacturer of network connectivity devices, including routers, firewalls, switches, cabling, and connectors. Belden generated $2.5 billion in revenue for 2019 and employs approximately 9,000 people. Read more… Source: Bleeping Computer
- Baltimore County Public Schools hit by ransomware attack
November 25, 2020
Baltimore County Public Schools has been hit today by a ransomware attack that led to a systemic shutdown of its network due to the number of systems impacted in the attack. The Baltimore County school district manages all public schools in Baltimore County, Maryland, and is the 25th largest U.S. school system. Read more… Source: Bleeping Computer
- Three arrested as INTERPOL, Group-IB and the Nigeria Police Force disrupt prolific cybercrime group
November 25, 2020
Three suspects have been arrested in Lagos following a joint INTERPOL, Group-IB and Nigeria Police Force cybercrime investigation. The Nigerian nationals are believed to be members of a wider organized crime group responsible for distributing malware, carrying out phishing campaigns and extensive Business Email Compromise scams. The suspects are alleged to have developed phishing links, domains, ...
- Navigating Gray Clouds – The Importance of Visibility in Cloud Security
November 23, 2020
The cloud is the digital world’s ground zero for transformation, innovation, and agility. Its vastness and power enable enterprises and organizations to keep up with high-resource demands and allow them to access mission-critical data anytime, anywhere. With 85% of businesses worldwide using the cloud to store large amounts of information, it has proven its imperative value, ...
- Botnets have been silently mass-scanning the internet for unsecured ENV files
November 21, 2020
Drawing little attention to themselves, multiple threat actors have spent the past two-three years mass-scanning the internet for ENV files that have been accidentally uploaded and left exposed on web servers. ENV files, or environment files, are a type of configuration files that are usually used by development tools. Frameworks like Docker, Node.js, Symfony, and Django use ...