A suspected North Korean state-sponsored hacking group used ChatGPT to create a deepfake of a army ID doc to assault a goal in South Korea, in keeping with cybersecurity researchers.
The group chargeable for the assault, which researchers have dubbed Kimsuky, is a suspected North Korea-sponsored cyber-espionage unit beforehand linked to different spying efforts in opposition to South Korean targets. The US Division of Homeland Safety mentioned Kimsuky “is most likely tasked by the North Korean regime with a global intelligence-gathering mission,” in keeping with a 2020 advisory.
The findings by Genians in July are the newest instance of suspected North Korean operatives deploying AI as a part of their intelligence-gathering work. Anthropic mentioned in August it found North Korean hackers used the Claude Code software to get employed and work remotely for US Fortune 500 tech firms. In that case, Claude helped them construct up elaborate faux identities, move coding assessments and ship precise technical work as soon as employed.
OpenAI mentioned in February it had banned suspected North Korean accounts that had used the service to create fraudulent résumés, cowl letters and social media posts to strive recruiting folks to help their schemes.
The development reveals that attackers can leverage rising AI throughout the hacking course of, together with assault situation planning, malware improvement, constructing their instruments and to impersonate job recruiters, mentioned Mun Chong-hyun, director at Genians.
Precisely what number of victims have been breached wasn’t instantly clear.
Genians researchers experimented with ChatGPT whereas investigating the faux identification doc. As replica of presidency IDs are unlawful in South Korea, ChatGPT initially returned a refusal when requested to create an ID. However altering the immediate allowed them to bypass the restriction.
American officers have alleged that North Korea is engaged in a long-running effort to make use of cyberattacks, cryptocurrency theft and IT contractors to collect info on behalf of the federal government in Pyongyang. These techniques are additionally used to generate funds meant to assist the regime subvert worldwide sanctions and develop its nuclear weapons applications, in keeping with the US authorities.
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