Security researchers have documented an AI agent running a full ransomware operation on its own against a live production target, planning, adapting, and executing every step from the first exploit through data destruction. This is early real-world evidence of the shift to autonomous criminal operations that our research forecast.
Agent-run attacks change what defenders can rely on. They produce disposable, per-victim indicators instead of reusable tools and infrastructure, so the defensive weight shifts from sharing and blocking indicators of compromise onto behavior and technique-based detection.
The novelty is automation, not tradecraft. Every weakness the agent used was old and well understood, which concentrates exposure in organizations running internet-facing AI and automation platforms or carrying default and unrotated credentials, and shortens the time available to close those gaps.
The monetization layer failed even though the intrusion succeeded. The agent did not save the encryption key it generated and used a placeholder address instead of real payment infrastructure, so the operation could not have produced a payout even if the victim had complied.
Read more…
Source: TrendMicro
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Zero-Day Bug Allows Hackers to Access CCTV Surveillance Cameras
September 17, 2018
Firmware used in up to 800,000 CCTV cameras open to attack thanks to buffer overflow zero-day bug. Between 180,000 and 800,000 IP-based closed-circuit television cameras are vulnerable to a zero-day vulnerability that allows hackers to access surveillance cameras, spy on and manipulate video feeds or plant malware. According to a Tenable Research Advisory issued Monday, the bugs are ...
- New Cold Boot Attack Unlocks Disk Encryption On Nearly All Modern PCs
September 13, 2018
Security researchers have revealed a new attack to steal passwords, encryption keys and other sensitive information stored on most modern computers, even those with full disk encryption. The attack is a new variation of a traditional Cold Boot Attack, which is around since 2008 and lets attackers steal information that briefly remains in the memory (RAM) after ...
- More than 40% of ICS computers were attacked in H1 2018
September 11, 2018
More than 40% of all industrial control system (ICS) computers protected by Kaspersky Lab solutions were attacked by malicious software at least once during the first half of 2018. The most impacted countries turned out to be Vietnam, Algeria and Sri Lanka, while the safest region for industrial machines was Denmark. These are among the ...
- Schneider Electric Modicon vulnerability impacts ICS operation in industrial settings
September 6, 2018
A security vulnerability discovered in Schneider Electric Modicon controllers has the potential to severely disrupt industrial equipment and networks. According to researchers from industrial cybersecurity firm Radiflow, the bug, tracked as CVE-2018-7789, “severely exposes the safety and availability of the ICS networks on which these devices were installed.” The vulnerability is present in the Schneider Electric Modicon M221 controller ...
- Cybercrooks home in on infosec’s weakest link – you poor gullible people
September 5, 2018
Cybercrims are ramping up their efforts to target employees through fraudulent email and social media scams, according to a new study by email security firm Proofpoint. Retailers and government agencies saw huge quarter-on-quarter increases in email fraud attempts in calendar Q2, with attacks per company and agency soaring 91 per cent and 84 per cent respectively. ...
- Recent Windows ALPC zero-day has been exploited in the wild for almost a week
September 5, 2018
Two days after a security researcher released details and proof-of-concept code about an unpatched Windows zero-day, one malware group had already incorporated the vulnerability in their exploit chain and was attempting to infect users around the globe. The zero-day used in this malware distribution campaign is a (still-unpatched) vulnerability in the Windows Task Scheduler feature, affecting ...