Check Point recently released a report revealing a new type of ransomware called FunkSec, which has attacked at least 85 companies since the end of last year. FunkSec is written in the Rust language and shows signs of being generated by a large artificial intelligence model. Its code contains fluent English comments, but the attack pattern is relatively primitive. The discovery raises concerns about AI technology being misused for malware generation and highlights new challenges facing the cybersecurity field.
Recently, the well-known security company Check Point released a report revealing a new ransomware Trojan called FunkSec. Since the end of last year, this malware has successfully attacked at least 85 enterprise organizations. According to the researchers' investigation, this ransomware Trojan was developed using the Rust programming language, and there are strong indications that it may have been automatically generated by a large artificial intelligence model.
The study pointed out that FunkSec’s code contains a series of fluent English comments, showing a high degree of intelligence in its generation process. However, despite its professional appearance, the attack pattern appears relatively primitive and backward, which further supports the hypothesis that the Trojan may have been generated through an AI model. Researchers believe that hackers with low technical skills may use these AI models to easily generate various types of malware.
In addition, the investigation also found that a hacker publicly sold the FunkSec Trojan on underground forums under the pseudonym "el_farado", indicating that he was seeking profits in this way. Behind this behavior, it reveals the hackers' use of AI technology, allowing them to create complex malware at low cost. What’s even more interesting is that this hacker posted in a relevant forum asking how to become a hacker, which shows his limited technical level.
What is even more worrying is that many of the so-called "stolen data" announced by relevant hackers actually come from attacks by other criminal organizations, which shows that they are trying to exaggerate their influence. This phenomenon not only reflects the self-hype of hackers, but also exposes their serious lack of technical capabilities. They seem to be "disguising" with the convenience of AI.
With the advancement of technology, the application of AI is becoming more and more widespread, and the network security situation is becoming increasingly severe. This incident undoubtedly sounded the alarm to major enterprises, reminding them to strengthen network security protection measures to resist malicious attacks driven by AI.
The FunkSec incident reminds us that artificial intelligence technology is a double-edged sword, and its convenience may also be exploited by criminals. In the future, it is necessary to strengthen the supervision of AI models and improve the cybersecurity awareness of enterprises and individuals to jointly respond to new cyber threats in the AI era.