Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN.US) reports reveal: a hacker group was able to breach 600 firewalls in just five weeks using AI tools.

According to a security research report released by Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN.US), over the past five weeks, a small group of hackers have breached over 600 firewalls in more than 30 countries using widely available artificial intelligence (AI) tools. The report states that this small group (possibly even just one individual) used commercial generative AI services to quickly exploit weak points in security measures, such as simple login credentials or single-factor authentication. Amazon.com, Inc. said that these technologies allowed the infiltrators to breach firewalls on a large scale, a task that would typically require a larger and more skilled team. These hackers used their access to security equipment to further penetrate the networks of some victims, with their behavior appearing to be preparing for ransomware attacks. The affected devices are distributed in South Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, West Africa, Northern Europe, Southeast Asia, and other areas. Amazon.com, Inc. stated that these widespread intrusion incidents are economically motivated, and represent the latest case of hackers using AI to simplify and accelerate network attacks. The report did not disclose which specific AI tools the hackers used, nor did it name the victims. CJ Moses, head of security engineering and operations at Amazon.com, Inc., said in the report, "This is like an AI-driven network crime assembly line that allows less sophisticated individuals to carry out large-scale criminal activities." Researchers believe that these hackers are not targeting specific industries, but are opportunistically attacking weakly protected firewall devices. Moses added that once they encounter stronger security measures, hackers will move on to other targets. And even if they successfully infiltrate a network, they "can only carry out the simplest, automated attack paths." Last year, hackers used technology from the U.S. AI startup Anthropic to carry out a large-scale network crime scheme, affecting at least 17 organizations. At the time, Anthropic stated that this was an unprecedented case of attackers weaponizing commercial AI tools on a large scale. Amazon.com, Inc. expects that such situations will continue to increase in the future. Moses said, "Organizations should anticipate that threats enhanced by AI, whether from skilled or unskilled attackers, will continue to grow in scale and number." This article was originally from Cailian News, edited by GMTEight: Chen Yufeng.