Cybersecurity Study Reveals Growing Utilization of AI by Cybercriminals

In a comprehensive study based on data captured from over one million global endpoints, cybersecurity experts have uncovered a concerning trend in the evolving cybercrime landscape. It highlights the increasing use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems by cybercriminals to craft malicious content and execute sophisticated attacks.

Released as a biannual threat report, conducted by Acronis, it identifies ransomware as the dominant risk faced by small and medium-sized businesses. While the number of new ransomware variants is declining, the severity of ransomware attacks remains significant. Additionally, the report raises concerns about the growing prominence of data stealers who leverage stolen credentials to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information.

Candid Wüest, Acronis VP of Research, explains, "The volume of threats in 2023 has surged relative to last year, a sign that criminals are scaling and enhancing how they compromise systems and execute attacks. To address the dynamic threat landscape, organizations need agile, comprehensive, unified security solutions that provide the necessary visibility to understand attacks, simplify context, and provide efficient remediation of any threat."

The report's findings indicate that phishing is the primary method employed by cybercriminals to obtain login credentials. In the first half of 2023 alone, the number of email-based phishing attacks surged by 464% compared to the previous year. Moreover, there has been a 24% increase in attacks per organization during the same period. Acronis-monitored endpoints observed a 15% increase in the number of files and URLs per scanned email, indicating the evolving tactics used by cybercriminals.

Acronis summarize the report findings and highlight the key cyber threat trends:

• Ransomware variants continue to fall, but businesses are still losing data and money
• Phishing and malicious emails remain the main vector of infection
• Data breaches continue to dominate
• Generative AI is changing the game

Cybercriminals Using AI Platforms to Create, Automate, Scale, and Improve New Attacks

The study also reveals that cybercriminals have begun utilizing large language model (LLM)-based AI platforms to create, automate, scale, and improve new attacks through active learning. This trend highlights the adaptability and sophistication of modern cyber threats, making them more challenging to detect using traditional antivirus models.

Noteworthy statistics from the report include:

• Acronis blocked almost 50 million URLs at the endpoint in Q1 2023, representing a 15% increase over Q4 2022.
• Q1 2023 witnessed 809 publicly mentioned ransomware cases, with a 62% spike in March alone compared to the monthly average of 270 cases.
• In Q1 2023, 30.3% of all received emails were spam, and 1.3% contained malware or phishing links.
• Each malware sample exists for an average of 2.1 days in the wild before disappearing, with 73% of samples only seen once.

How to Mitigate These Risks?

The report also highlights major security concerns, including the lack of strong security solutions to detect zero-day vulnerability exploitations.

Organizations' failure to timely update vulnerable software and inadequate protection for Linux servers are identified as contributing factors to successful cyberattacks. Moreover, not all organizations adhere to proper data backup protocols, including the widely recommended 3-2-1 rule.

Acronis stresses the need for proactive cyber protection measures and advocates for a multi-layered security approach that combines anti-malware, EDR, DLP, email security, vulnerability assessment, patch management, RMM, and backup capabilities. By leveraging advanced solutions that incorporate AI, machine learning, and behavioral analysis, organizations can better mitigate the risks posed by ransomware and data stealers.

You can download the report from Acronis here to deep dive into the full analysis of the threat landscape.