Ransomware, use of AI, and rise in cybercrime-as-a-service key threats in the first half of 2023: Report

Ransomware attacks, the use of AI, and the rise in cybercrime-as-a-service were observed to be the key trends in the cybersecurity space in the first half of 2023. While LockBit ransomware was the most used, accounting for 30.3% of observed ransomware cases, cybercriminals were also found making use of new variants, including Akira and Luna Moth. Threat actors were also found to be using AI tools like ChatGPT to identify vulnerabilities, reverse-engineer shellcode, and even generate code for malware. Earlier in July, WormGPT, a blackhat version of the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT was found to be used to generate malicious content, including phishing emails, malware code, fake news, and social media posts.