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:
- Manufacturing is becoming a major target for ransomware attacks
November 13, 2020
Ransomware has become a major threat to the manufacturing industry as cyber-criminal groups increasingly take an interest in targeting the industrial control systems (ICS) that manage operations. According to analysis by cybersecurity researchers at security company Dragos, the number of publicly recorded ransomware attacks against manufacturing has tripled in the last year alone. While a lot of ...
- Spam and phishing in Q3 2020
November 12, 2020
Worming their way in: cybercriminal tricks of the trade These days, many companies distribute marketing newsletters via online platforms. In terms of capabilities, such platforms are quite diverse: they send out advertising and informational messages, harvest statistics (for example, about clicked links in emails), and the like. At the same time, such services attract both spammers, ...
- New ModPipe malware targets hospitality, hotel point of sale systems
November 12, 2020
A new Point-of-Sale (PoS) malware is targeting devices used by “hundreds of thousands” of organizations in the hospitality sector, researchers have warned. Dubbed ModPipe, the malware is a backdoor able to harvest sensitive information in PoS devices running Oracle Micros Restaurant Enterprise Series (RES) 3700, management software that is particularly popular in the United States. RES 3700 ...
- Targeted ransomware: it’s not just about encrypting your data!
November 11, 2020
When we talk about ransomware, we need to draw a line between what it used to be and what it currently is. Why? Because nowadays ransomware is not just about encrypting data – it’s primarily about data exfiltration. After that, it’s about data encryption and leaving convincing proof that the attacker was in the network, ...
- Ragnar Locker Ransomware Gang Takes Out Facebook Ads in Key New Tactic
November 11, 2020
The Ragnar Locker ransomware group has decided to ratchet up the pressure on its latest high-profile victim, Italian liquor conglomerate Campari, by taking out Facebook ads threatening to release the 2TB of sensitive data it stole in a Nov. 3 attack – unless a $15 million ransom is paid in Bitcoin. Campari Group, which is behind ...
- Recent ransomware wave targeting Israel linked to Iranian threat actors
November 11, 2020
Two recent ransomware waves that targeted Israeli companies have been traced back to Iranian threat actors, multiple sources have told ZDNet today. The ransomware attacks have been taking place since mid-October, have ramped up this month, and have repeatedly focused on Israeli targets. Israeli companies of all sizes have been targeted by threat actors using the Pay2Key ...