The underground market for criminally oriented generative AI has moved beyond the early hype surrounding ‘malicious chatbots.’ The gradual integration of AI as a productivity layer within cybercrime operations has become the dominant story, indicating that while the potential for fully autonomous AI hacking systems is possible, attackers are not embracing them as expected. Instead, threat actors are increasingly using AI to accelerate routine, but operationally significant, tasks to scale their operations. Drafting phishing lures, profiling targets, debugging code, generating forged documents, modifying malware, translating victim communications, and processing stolen data at scale were once time-consuming activities that AI has made significantly easier. AI does not replace cybercriminals; it lowers friction, increases speed, and expands the range of actors able to perform tasks that previously required more time, skill, or external support.
Read more…
Source: Rapid7 News
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- CloudSorcerer – A new APT targeting Russian government entities
July 8, 2024
In May 2024, Kaspersky researchers discovered a new advanced persistent threat (APT) targeting Russian government entities that we dubbed CloudSorcerer. It’s a sophisticated cyberespionage tool used for stealth monitoring, data collection, and exfiltration via Microsoft Graph, Yandex Cloud, and Dropbox cloud infrastructure. The malware leverages cloud resources as its command and control (C2) servers, accessing them ...
- ‘RockYou2024’: Nearly 10 billion passwords leaked online
July 8, 2024
On a popular hacking form, a user has leaked a file that contains 9,948,575,739 unique plaintext passwords. The list appears to be a compilation of passwords that were obtained during several old and more recent data breaches. The list is referred to as RockYou2024 because of its filename, rockyou.txt. To cybercriminals the list has some value ...
- How to Prevent Email Spoofing with DMARC
July 8, 2024
Email-based attacks are the number one attack vector for cybercriminals. These attacks do not always require a high level of technical sophistication to carry out. And because the human factor is involved, there is almost no doubt they will endure as a favored tactic. One way bad actors can greatly increase their chances of a successful ...
- NHS remains vulnerable to further cyber-attacks
July 8, 2024
A leading cybersecurity expert has warned that the NHS remains vulnerable to further cyber-attacks unless it updates its computer systems. This stark assessment comes in the wake of a major ransomware attack that has severely disrupted healthcare services across London. Prof Ciaran Martin, the founding CEO of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), told the ...
- New cyberattack targets iPhone Apple IDs
July 6, 2024
A new cyberattack is targeting iPhone users, with criminals attempting to obtain individuals’ Apple IDs in a “phishing” campaign, security software company Symantec said in an alert Monday. Cyber criminals are sending text messages to iPhone users in the U.S. that appear to be from Apple, but are in fact an attempt at stealing victims’ personal ...
- Cybercrime groups restructuring after major takedowns
July 6, 2024
Cybercrime gangs are looking to rebuild with new tactics after global police operations this year made a huge dent in their activities, experts have told AFP. The gangs have had a bad year so far, with law enforcement operations taking out some of prominent groups including LockBit, a loose network of largely Russian-speaking cyber criminals. LockBit ...

