Criminal AI-as-a-Service in 2026: How the Underground Market Is Operationalizing Cybercrime


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:

  • Iran to blame for cyber-attack on MPs’ emails – British intelligence

    October 14, 2017

    Iran is being blamed for a cyber-attack in June on the email accounts of dozens of MPs, according to an unpublished assessment by British intelligence. Disclosure of the report, first revealed by the Times but independently verified by the Guardian, comes at an awkward juncture. Donald Trump made it clear on Friday that he wants to ...

  • Hyatt Hit By Credit Card Breach, Again

    October 13, 2017

    Hyatt Corp., hotel guests are being warned of a credit card breach, the second since December 2015. On Thursday, the hotelier identified 41 of its hotels spread across 13 countries where it confirmed unauthorized access to payment card information. China is the hardest hit by the breach with 18 hotels impacted. Three U.S. hotels were part ...

  • London issues call to arms to cyber security community

    October 13, 2017

    Cyber security community called on to help educate capital’s small businesses about cyber crime and give them practical advice London is calling on the cyber security community to help keep the city’s more than one million small businesses safe from cyber crime. “Cyber crime is a growing problem for everyone, but while individuals are protected by their ...

  • Swedish transport agencies targeted in cyber attack

    October 12, 2017

    Swedish transport authorities were hit by a cyber attack on Thursday morning, a day after trains were delayed as a result of another attack on IT systems monitoring railway traffic. The website of Sweden’s Transport Agency (Transportstyrelsen) was partially down on Thursday morning, according to the agency most likely as a result of a DDoS attack. During ...

  • Cyber-security threat to UK ‘as serious as terrorism’ – GCHQ

    October 9, 2017

    Keeping the UK safe from cyber-attacks is now as important as fighting terrorism, the head of the intelligence monitoring service GCHQ has said. Jeremy Fleming said increased funding for GCHQ was being spent on making it a “cyber-organisation” as much as an intelligence and counter-terrorism one. It comes after the NHS and parliament suffered cyber-attacks this year. Mr ...

  • Disqus Hacked: More than 17.5 Million Users’ Details Stolen in 2012 Breach

    October 6, 2017

    Another day, Another data breach disclosure. This time the popular commenting system has fallen victim to a massive security breach. Disqus, the company which provides a web-based comment plugin for websites and blogs, has admitted that it was breached 5 years ago in July 2012 and hackers stole details of more than 17.5 million users. The stolen data ...