Artificial intelligence (AI) is supposed to make humans more advanced by increasing productivity and doing boring jobs for humans. Utopia is what we dream of, but instead AI has become the Torment Nexus that has caused thousands of job losses. This morning, Google Threat Intelligence Group (TIG) reported that they have detected the first zero-day cyberattack carried out with the help of AI.
Google TIG says a notorious cybercrime group is using AI to detect new zero-day vulnerabilities in software and build ways to exploit these vulnerabilities for hacking purposes. The attack targeted a widely used open source system administration tool, but was successfully blocked before a large-scale exploitation could be carried out.
Worryingly, Google TIG says this discovery may be just the beginning of the innovation of AI-based attacks by criminals. AI is now capable enough to automatically find software vulnerabilities, help develop malware, analyze targets and generate code before making decisions with minimal human oversight.
The use of AI for cyberattacks has been predicted. Earlier this month, the Claude Mythos model detected hundreds of previously undetected vulnerabilities in software. Due to the potential risks involved, Anthropic has not made Claude Mythos publicly available. Instead, access is being given to government agencies and major banks around the world first so they can patch the vulnerabilities in their systems.
