Around 1,000 servers that may have been capable of automatically searching for vulnerabilities and attacking websites around the world have been discovered in Japan. Kyodo News reports this, according to UNN.
Details
According to available information, the investigation was conducted by the Japan Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center together with foreign cybersecurity companies. In early October, specialists began checking suspicious servers and discovered artificial intelligence tools on them.
Hacking, which previously required time even from those with specialized knowledge, has become easier with the emergence of high-level artificial intelligence. Servers hosting these tools can be placed in physical premises or managed through virtual frameworks
According to the center, most of the servers hosted artificial intelligence-based platforms, such as the Artex penetration-testing tool. As the publication writes, they searched for system vulnerabilities and attempted to steal configuration files.
One server contained traces of a programming-support tool created using artificial intelligence by the U.S. company Anthropic PBC, indicating that the attackers had turned artificial intelligence into a weapon to enhance their hacking capabilities. Some publicly accessible servers contained tools for analyzing the internal structure of smartphone applications and programs for testing system vulnerabilities. The attackers are believed to have analyzed applications and attempted to gain unauthorized access through interfaces that exchange information with external systems
Ken Sajo, an analyst at JPCERT/CC, said that since artificial intelligence is still in the early stages of being used for cyberattacks, "the number of more sophisticated attacks will increase in the future."
We remind you
Artificial intelligence (AI) "may pose a threat to all of humanity" without appropriate measures being taken. The heads of the largest AI companies issued this warning before the UN Security Council.