Jan. 26 Cyber News

AI Ransomware Will Surge in Next Two Years, UK’s GCHQ Warns

According to the report, AI will lower the entry barrier for novice cybercriminals, hackers-for-hire, and hacktivists. This accessibility will allow less-skilled threat actors to conduct more effective access and information-gathering operations.

Combined with improved victim targeting facilitated by AI, these factors will contribute to the heightened global ransomware threat.

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This devious malware uses Bond-inspired driver to kill security suites — then proceeds to systematically encrypt your data and drops a $2 million ransom request

The ransomware comes with a hardcoded list of 991 processes that need to be terminated. Most of them relate to antivirus products, security tools, analysis tools, and system utilities, it was said.

After killing the security programs, Kasseika will run the encryptor. The last step is running a clear.bat script, removing all traces of the attack.

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Ransomware and Darknet Markets Top List For Most Prominent Crypto Crimes

Unfortunately, Duan believes that ransomware and darknet market crimes using cryptocurrency will continue to increase moving forward. This is due to the rise of franchising specific malware tools coupled with evolving technology. “By selling the infrastructure and allowing anyone to use it, bad actors are facilitating the increase in criminal activity. Secondly, the technology and methods are still in their early stages of development and will continue to evolve, leading to more advanced systems,” he said.

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