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AI tools help hacker break in for $25 per target
It’s cheap to set yourself up as a hacker these days using AI. Someone attacked 105 online retailers over a period of five days, compromising 27 of them — all for an average of $25 per attack, according to research by Israeli security company Gambit.
But the attacks have been going on for much longer. Whoever is responsible used open-source AI harnesses to mount the attack. Gambit has identified three of these: Strix for vulnerability search, Cairn for autonomous end-to-end exploitation, and Hermes to orchestrate the campaign. The attacks have proved to be highly lucrative, with 600,000 active credit card details taken from just two businesses, the installation of card skimmer scripts at five more, and some level of access to an unspecified number of major companies.
It has been a highly efficient attack, most access taking just a few hours and at a minimal cost. OpenRouter was used for AI model access. The capture of the account balance on August 25 showed the attacker spent just $7,005 over a four-week period. This worked out at roughly $25 per attack, with costs ranging from $3.13 for the cheapest target to $79.31 for the most expensive.
Gambit has contacted all the companies concerned, but warned that the intensity of the attacks shows how AI is transforming cyber criminals’ activities by providing a level of sophistication that humans would find more challenging to muster. We are already seeing a new level of incursions to businesses and can expect to see more in the future.
Maxwell began writing about technology in 1984, when mainframes ruled the world. Since then he has written for just about every business computing title in the UK, and for a few in the US, covering everything from Artificial intelligence to Zero-day exploits and all points in between. He has also been editor-in-chief of several award-winning titles, including Network Week, Techworld, and Cloud Pro, and a regular contributor to Whatsonstage.com. In his spare time he coaches a junior rugby team.