Hackers are using AI and encryption in new ways to make cyberattacks more painful, according to new research from Microsoft. Stealthier attacks are being crafted by hackers using both artificial intelligence tools that have been on the market for a while and generative-AI chatbots that emerged last year, said Tom Burt, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for customer security and trust. “Cybercriminals and nation states are using AI to refine the language they use in phishing attacks or the imagery in influence operations,” he said. Meanwhile, an emerging development in ransomware shows hackers remotely encrypting data, rather than encrypting it within hacked networks, Microsoft said. By sending encrypted files to a different computer, attackers leave behind less evidence and make it harder for companies to recover. Around 60% of human-operated ransomware attacks that Microsoft observed in the last year used this technique. The new AI and encryption tools used by hackers are making it more difficult for companies to defend their networks as the number of attacks surges. General data exfiltration attacks, where hackers steal data and demand ransom payments from victims, doubled between November 2022 and June 2023, Microsoft researchers found in an analysis of data generated from the 135 million devices it manages for customers and the more than 300 hacker groups it tracks. Also, ransomware attacks operated by humans climbed 200% between September 2022 and June, the company said in its report published Thursday.
Full report : Hackers With AI Are Harder to Stop, Microsoft Says.
