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:
- Ukrainian activists launch devastating cyber attack on Russian Space Hydrometeorology Center
January 29, 2024
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense claims that pro-Ukrainian hacktivists breached the Russian Center for Space Hydrometeorology, known as “planeta” (планета), and wiped 2 petabytes of data. Planeta is a state research center that uses space satellite data and ground sources such as radars and stations to provide information and accurate predictions about weather, climate, natural disasters, extreme ...
- Blackwood APT Group Has a New DLL Loader
January 29, 2024
This week, the SonicWall Capture Labs threat research team analyzed a sample tied to the Blackwood APT group. This is a DLL that, when loaded onto a victim’s computer, will escalate privileges and attempt to install a backdoor for communications monitoring and diversion. It has evasive capabilities and, as of this writing, is targeting companies and ...
- The dangers of unused bank accounts and how to close them
January 26, 2024
If you’re like most people, you’ve likely got at least a few unused bank accounts floating around. However, there may be financial and security dangers associated with keeping these unused bank accounts active. Security risks of unused bank accounts Fraud exposure: Unused bank accounts can become targets for fraud. Closing these accounts minimizes the risk. Avoidance of fees: ...
- Albabat ransomware
January 26, 2024
Albabat, also known as White Bat, is a financially motivated ransomware variant written in Rust that identifies and encrypts files important to the user and demands a ransom to release them. It first appeared in November 2023 with the variant Version 0.1.0. Version 0.3.0 was released in late December, followed by version 0.3.3 in mid-January 2024. ...
- UK councils remain downed by cyberattack
January 26, 2024
Three local councils in the United Kingdom continue to experience disruption to their online services, a week after confirming a cyberattack had knocked some systems offline. The councils for Canterbury, Dover, and Thanet — all of which are based in the U.K. county of Kent and have a combined population of almost 500,000 residents — said ...
- Kansas City Area Transit Authority hit by ransom cyber-attack, affecting communications
January 26, 2024
The Kansas City Area Transit Authority announced this week that is was hit by a ransom cyber-attack. The incident was reported on Tuesday, Jan. 23. KCATA said all service is operating, including fixed-route buss, Freedom and Freedom-On-Demand paratransit service. KCATA said at this time regional RideKC call centers can’t receive calls or can any KCATA landline. Read ...