AI and the Democratization of Cybercrime
fliptop writes:
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become one of the most potent force multipliers the criminal underground has ever seen. Generative models that write immaculate prose, mimic voices, and chain exploits together have lowered the cost of sophisticated attacks to almost nothing:
This isn't news. Last year, Jen Easterly, former Director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), warned that AI will exacerbate the threat of cyberattacks [by making] people who are less sophisticated actually better at doing some of the things they want to do."
The truth of that warning is already visible. The first quarter of 2025 saw an unprecedented 126% surge in ransomware incidents. Since then, there's been a spree of high-impact attacks against high-profile brands. British retail institutions, global brands, major logistics operators, and more have all been hit by highly sophisticated attacks.
Ransomware, phishing, and deepfakes have merged into a low-barrier ecosystem where a cloud-hosted toolkit, a stolen credential, and a crypto wallet now suffice to run an international extortion ring.
[...] Dark-web marketplaces have grown into one of the world's largest shadow economies. Listings resemble Amazon product pages, complete with escrow, loyalty discounts, and 24-hour customer success' chat. Competition drives platform fees down, so developers chase scale: more affiliates, more victims, more leverage.
[...] It's time to move upstream and license offensive-AI capabilities the way we already license explosives, narcotics, and zero-day exports. Any model that can autonomously scan, exploit, or deepfake at scale should sit behind the regulatory equivalent of a locked cabinet, complete with audited access logs, financial surety, and criminal liability for willful leaks. Cloud providers and model builders love to invoke dual-use," but dual-use is exactly why controlled-substance laws exist: society decided that convenience doesn't trump harm. Apply the same logic here, and we choke supply instead of eternally mopping the floor.
Related: Uncovering WormGPT: A Cybercriminal's Arsenal
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