Even Scammers Are Turning To AI To Negotiate With Victims

Data breaches have become far too common a trend in this digital age. Much like our defenses — which continue to evolve — the bad actors behind these attacks are evolving, too, and victims are suffering the consequences.

According to a new study from Picus Security, a major ransomware group called Global Group has resorted to using AI chatbots to negotiate with victims of its ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) venture. The group, which was first introduced by a ransomware actor known only as $$$, claims that the service is set up with cross-platform payloads, generous affiliate sharing, and automated negotiations.

These automated negotiations have stood out among recent ransomware attacks, as they rely heavily on artificial intelligence to drive the conversations between the ransomware group and its victims. As such, victims of this ransomware — which is just a continuation of another well-known family of ransomwares — may find dealing with the aftermath even more annoying.

With massive data breaches like the ones we've seen in the past year, it's only going to become more and more important to keep your online data safe. And now, as bad actors turn to AI to automate their attacks and make them more easily scalable, we're likely to see more details of new breaches being reported each and every month.

And this advancement isn't going to make dealing with negotiations any easier. The chatbots that the bad actors are using are designed to apply psychological pressure, just as the humans on the other line might in non-AI related incidents. It's just one way that these negotiations are likely going to become even more unhinged and difficult to deal with.

The real meat of this report suggests that while some groups like Global Group are turning to AI, others are still waiting to see how the tools can benefit them. Because these attacks can often result in the theft of thousands or even millions of dollars, the bad actors will take any advantage they can get to up their profits and take from the unsuspecting victims they manage to latch onto.

And since the human hackers can still monitor what the chatbot is doing, they'll likely only improve the systems to make them harder to fight back against, making ransomware even more of an annoying issue to deal with.