Cybercriminals are increasingly using AI-powered hacking tools, while a major internet vulnerability is triggering a wave of attacks. Experts warn that the pace and scale of these incidents could overwhelm organizations’ ability to respond.
The attack began on Friday evening at around 11 p.m. Colin Parsons, the founder of a technology company, was targeted by hackers who used AI-powered tools to carry out unauthorized transactions.
The next morning, Parsons found around 50 emails notifying him that he had been charged repeatedly for services provided by Anthropic and OpenAI. The bills totaled $449.
His case is part of a wave of cyberattacks that has spread across the internet in recent weeks. Hackers are increasingly turning to AI agents and automated tools that allow them to break into computer systems more quickly and conceal their activities more easily.
“We’ve seen a surge in the number of adversaries using these kinds of agents,” said Adam Meyers, senior vice president at cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.
“We have identified both highly sophisticated attackers and others with little experience who use these tools,” he added.
The rise in attacks is part of an AI-driven surge in cyber threats whose effects are being felt worldwide, The Wall Street Journal reports.
As new technologies enable hackers to act faster, cybersecurity specialists face another challenge: identifying a growing number of software vulnerabilities and fixing them before they can be exploited.
A vulnerability that could affect up to 70% of websites
Last week, organizations around the world scrambled to patch newly discovered vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to take control of up to 70% of websites, according to estimates cited in the initial report.
Amazon has warned that hackers are already trying to break into websites by exploiting these security vulnerabilities.
The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) advised companies unable to install security updates immediately to temporarily take their websites offline.
Some government institutions, including those in Canada, Belgium, France, and the Netherlands, have taken this measure. Meanwhile, the discussion and image-sharing platform 4chan suspended comments ahead of the rollout of security updates.
The scale and frequency of AI-driven attacks are putting pressure on companies specializing in cyber incident response.
Some experts have begun calling October “Black October,” a period marked by escalating attacks and organizations’ struggles to respond to them.
Steven Adair, president of cybersecurity firm Volexity, expects the effects to become even more apparent in the coming period.
“We expect a flood of revelations about breaches of IT systems in the coming weeks and months,” he said.
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