Amazon report reveals: a hacker group using AI tools overwhelmed 600 firewalls in five weeks

According to a security research report released by Amazon, over the past five weeks, a small group of hackers used widely available artificial intelligence (AI) tools on the market to breach more than 600 firewalls across dozens of countries.

The report states that this small group (possibly just one person) used commercial generative AI services to quickly exploit weak points in security measures, such as simple login credentials or single-factor authentication.

Amazon said these technologies enabled intruders to conduct large-scale firewall breaches, a task that would normally require a larger, more skilled team.

These hackers leveraged their access to security devices to further infiltrate some victim networks, with behaviors resembling preparations for ransomware attacks.

Affected devices are distributed across South Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, West Africa, Northern Europe, Southeast Asia, and other regions.

Amazon stated that these widespread intrusion events are economically motivated and represent the latest case of hackers using AI to simplify and accelerate cyberattacks. The report did not disclose which specific AI tools the hackers used or name the victims.

CJ Moses, head of Amazon’s Security Engineering and Operations, said in the report, “It’s like an AI-driven cybercrime pipeline that allows less skilled individuals to carry out large-scale attacks.”

Researchers believe that these hackers are not targeting specific industries but are “opportunistically” attacking vulnerable firewall devices.

Moses said that once faced with stronger security defenses, hackers will shift to other targets. Even if they successfully penetrate the network, they “can only execute the simplest, automated attack paths.”

Last year, hackers used technology from American AI startup Anthropic to carry out a large-scale cybercrime operation affecting at least 17 organizations.

At the time, Anthropic described this as an “unprecedented” case of attackers weaponizing commercial artificial intelligence tools on a large scale.

Amazon expects such incidents to increase in the future. Moses stated, “Organizations should anticipate that AI-enhanced threat activities, whether from skilled or unskilled attackers, will continue to grow in scale and number.”

(Source: Cailian Press)