Tag: weaponized ai
InfoSecurity Europe 2025 focuses on weaponized AI
InfoSecurity Europe 2025, which begins in London today, Tuesday, June 2nd, will this year be dominated by the rapidly growing threat posed by the weaponization of artificial intelligence (AI). New to the conference is an AI and cloud security stage, which will exhibit ways organizations can counter the threat posed by AI. AI-driven cybersecurity also dominated the recent RSA conference in San Francisco. Over the last 12 months, threat actors haven’t wasted a moment capitalizing on the global fascination with Artificial Intelligence. As AI’s popularity surged over the past year, cybercriminals have been quick to exploit the new technology to carry out cyberattacks on an industrial scale.
2025 forecast to be boom year for cybersecurity
California-based cybersecurity goliath Palo Alto Networks has issued a bullish revenue forecast based on a perceived rising global demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-driven security products. “In Q2 [2025], our strong business performance was fuelled by customers adopting technology driven by the imperative of AI, including cloud investment and infrastructure modernization," said CEO Nikesh Arora. “Our growth across regions and demand for our platforms demonstrates our customers' confidence in our approach. It reaffirms our faith in our 2030 plans and our $15 billion next-generation technology annual recurring revenue goal.”
AI enables ransomware boom
A new ransomware group, named Funksec, is the latest example of relatively inexperienced cybercriminals using AI to develop weaponized malware. The group claims that over 85 organizations fell victim to its ransomware attacks in December alone, potentially surpassing every other ransomware group in terms of victim numbers. According to Check Point Research: “FunkSec operators appear to use AI-assisted malware development which can enable even inexperienced actors to quickly produce and refine advanced tools…Presenting itself as a new Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) operation, FunkSec appears to have no known connections to previously identified ransomware gangs.”