A new study from cybersecurity firm Semperis reveals that artificial intelligence is being “weaponized” in 84% of ransomware attacks.
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The report, based on a survey of 1,200 IT and security professionals, shows that AI is being used to identify vulnerabilities in corporate networks and tailor attacks to specific employees.
The use of AI in ransomware attacks allows cybercriminals to work more efficiently and at a larger scale, making it harder for authorities to track them.
Additionally, the report found that 44% of respondents said ransomware used their own AI systems against them.
But the findings also underscored ransomware’s human toll.
According to the report, more than a third of surveyed victims faced psychological or physical threats against employees, and 14% of surveyed organizations even reported employees or family members forced to change jobs, office locations or residences as a result of sustained ransomware threats.
In all, 69% of surveyed ransomware victims experienced multiple successful attacks sometime in the previous year, with 59% of respondents paying a ransom at least once, and 87% experienced attacks targeting their identity systems, or the digital infrastructure that controls access to their networks.
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