Cybercriminals’ Use of AI for Sophisticated Attacks and Fraud

Huntress has released its 2024 Cyber Threat Report, highlighting increased targeting of healthcare and other vital industries. The report reveals that hackers hide in plain sight, with cloud storage misuse incidents involving Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox. Ransomware threats are surging, with DarkGate, Akira, and LockBit being prominent variants. The report also emphasizes that no healthcare target is sacred, as healthcare organizations face various cyber threats, including Trojans, RATs, and ransomware.

And from some new Rapid7 research, The number of new ransomware strains has decreased by more than half in the past year, indicating that existing tools used by top gangs are successful. Ransomware attacks now focus more on business-critical systems and data exfiltration before deploying ransomware. Common initial access vectors are exploiting vulnerabilities in public-facing applications and obtaining valid accounts. Deploying multi-factor authentication (MFA) and patching vulnerabilities quickly are effective defenses against ransomware and other attacks. Zero-day exploits are rising, particularly in network and security appliances, and attackers are increasingly targeting network edge devices.

MIT Technology Review looked at how criminals leverage artificial intelligence (AI). Phishing is a major use case, with generative AI like ChatGPT being integrated into spam-generating services. Deepfake audio scams are rising, allowing scammers to imitate someone’s voice convincingly. Criminals are also using deepfakes to bypass identity checks and offering jailbreak-as-a-service to manipulate AI systems. Additionally, AI language models are used for doxxing and surveillance, as they can infer personal information from online conversations.

Just as ransomware was systemized, it’s logical to think that targeted identity attacks are next to be systemized.      Huntress says ransomware is up, Rapid7 says more focused.   Either way, the bigger opportunity is in people and education rather than tools.