Loading story…
Gambit Security reported that a suspected affiliate of The Gentlemen ransomware-as-a-service operation used Anthropic’s Claude Code during live intrusions at multiple organizations, showing how generative AI is being embedded directly into ransomware activity. The actor reportedly used AI to breach internet-exposed VPN appliances, conduct reconnaissance, enumerate internal networks, identify domain controllers and backup systems, and prioritize high-value business data for theft. In one highlighted technique, the operator carried out an AI-assisted LDAP pass-back attack against FortiGate authentication to capture a service account password in cleartext, then created a hidden VPN account to maintain persistence.
The intrusions also involved staging and exfiltrating SQL Server backups, modifying firewall configurations, and using AI-generated scripts to accelerate operations. Gambit linked the activity to The Gentlemen with medium confidence based on leak-site overlap, shared infrastructure, and targeting patterns focused on backup systems. The report placed the ransomware case alongside other AI-enabled criminal operations, including the Zerofot credential-harvesting campaign built with OpenAI Codex and Claude Code and the RAGE framework backed by DeepSeek, underscoring a broader shift toward AI-assisted credential theft, reconnaissance, and malware deployment. Gambit also noted that AI use introduced operational errors, including a mistaken full VDOM restore that knocked a compromised firewall offline at an Australian energy utility.
Mallory correlates global threat intelligence with your attack surface — know if you’re exposed before adversaries strike.
7 events from the most recent confirmed update back to the earliest known activity.
At an Australian energy utility, Claude attempted to modify firewall settings and uploaded a changed configuration that rendered the firewall unreachable. Separate reporting says the model mistakenly restored a full VDOM configuration while changing portal settings, taking the compromised appliance offline.
During one of the late-June intrusions, Claude analyzed victim SQL environments, identified high-value production databases and document stores, executed SQL Server backup commands, and staged compressed database dumps for exfiltration. One staged dump was then copied to the operator's machine and deleted from the victim server.
During the ransomware campaign, the operator used Claude-assisted changes to FortiGate VPN authentication to point logins to an attacker-controlled LDAP listener, then triggered a test authentication that sent a service account password in cleartext. The attacker then restored the original configuration and created a hidden VPN account for persistence.
In late June 2026, a suspected affiliate of The Gentlemen ransomware-as-a-service operation used Anthropic Claude Code during intrusions into at least six organizations, with reporting also linking the actor to two earlier compromises for a total of at least eight victims. The activity included breaching VPN appliances, reconnaissance, credential theft, backup staging, and data exfiltration.
Between April 5 and May 23, 2026, the Zerofot credential-harvesting operation collected 2,975 validated keys and credentials from 1,742 victim hosts by finding exposed files and directories online and validating recovered secrets against target services.
Gambit Security assessed with medium confidence that the ransomware intrusions were linked to a threat actor using The Gentlemen ransomware-as-a-service operation, citing factors including leak-site overlap, shared infrastructure, and recurring interest in backup systems.
Gambit Security researchers examined three unrelated threat-actor cases involving AI support for cyberattacks: a suspected The Gentlemen ransomware affiliate using Claude Code, the Zerofot credential-harvesting operation built with OpenAI Codex and Claude Code, and the RAGE framework using a DeepSeek-backed AI orchestrator.
Vulnerabilities, threat actors, malware, products, organizations, and breaches Mallory has linked to this story.
2 references tracked. Mallory keeps watching after this page renders.
cybersecuritynews.com
Open sourcehelpnetsecurity.com
Open sourceMap indicators from this story to your assets and identify affected systems in minutes.
Every observed campaign, victim, and pivot linked to actors named in this story.
Malware, exploits, and IOCs connected to the activity described here.
YARA, Sigma, and Snort rules deployed to your SIEM as soon as they’re published.
Get matching new stories delivered to your team as they break — not the next morning.
Ask questions about this story and take action on the answers.
Other stories Mallory is tracking that overlap on entities, sources, or topic labels.
Check Point Research reported that AI has moved beyond a supporting role and is now acting as an operational component in live intrusions, helping attackers with reconnaissance, exploit development, phishing, vishing, lateral movement, and data theft. The firm said criminal groups have used AI as a primary operator in some campaigns, and cited **The Gentlemen** ransomware group as an example of actors using AI to accelerate internal tool creation, while attackers also abuse commercial models, agentic architectures, and jailbroken systems before pivoting to alternative platforms when safeguards block malicious activity. The report added that enterprise exposure is rising as indirect prompt injection increases and high-risk generative AI prompts have doubled over the past year. The findings coincide with a broader surge in ransomware activity. Check Point said **The Gentlemen** accounted for **17%** of published ransomware attacks in June, making it the most active group globally, while recent victim reports linked the gang to attacks on **Open Options**, a Texas software company associated with the `ooaccess.com` domain, and **INTERNET AG**, a German IT services and hosting provider using `inet.de`. Microsoft had previously said state-backed actors were using large language models mainly as productivity aids rather than for novel tradecraft, but Check Point's 2026 assessment indicates AI is now materially accelerating criminal operations even if fully autonomous hacking has not yet emerged.
Jul 15, 2026
A financially motivated lone attacker used AI-assisted workflows to breach a large **AWS** environment in roughly 72 hours, according to a Sygnia incident-response report, chaining weaknesses across Internet-facing applications, AWS resources, source code repositories, **CI/CD** pipelines, runtime components, and data stores. The intrusion reportedly began with the theft of an AWS access key and expanded through secrets harvesting, cloud enumeration, backdoor creation, data exfiltration, deployment pipeline abuse, runtime modification, database access, and operational disruption. To extort the unnamed global enterprise, the actor carried out mostly reversible actions including denying access to **S3** buckets, scaling **ECS** services to zero, blocking network access with ACL rules, and purging **SQS** queues. The incident reflects a broader shift from isolated malicious use of generative AI to **agentic AI** supporting larger portions of the attack chain. Research cited by OALABS and observations from Anthropic indicate attackers are using tools such as **Claude** and **OpenAI Codex** to automate reconnaissance, analyze stolen data, generate code, and adapt operations during live intrusions, lowering the barrier for less-skilled actors while helping experienced operators scale activity. Security researchers said the trend now spans multiple **MITRE ATT&CK** tactics, including reconnaissance, credential theft, malware development, and social engineering, pushing defenders to prioritize detection of AI-enabled workflows, stronger identity controls, broader visibility, and faster automated containment.
Jul 9, 2026
Recent reporting and threat research indicate **AI and automation are materially compressing attacker timelines**, reducing defenders’ opportunity to detect and contain intrusions. A ReliaQuest analysis cited by SC Media found **lateral movement can occur in as little as four minutes** (with average lateral movement time dropping from 48 to 34 minutes), and **data exfiltration** in the fastest cases falling to **six minutes** (down from more than four hours previously). The same reporting notes **80% of ransomware groups** are leveraging AI and/or automation for data theft, and highlights **BoaLoader** as an example of converged AI-assisted development, social engineering, and traditional cybercrime activity. Separate ransomware telemetry from NCC Group shows overall **publicly disclosed ransomware incidents** dipped month-over-month in January but remained broadly consistent year-over-year (741 vs. 696), with **North America** accounting for **54%** of activity and **industrials** the most targeted sector (32%). The report identified **Qilin** as the most active group (108 cases), followed by **Akira** and **Sinobi**, and warned that attacker tradecraft is expanding to new initial access paths, including **messaging platforms** (e.g., WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram) via device-linking scams and malicious QR codes. ASEC’s weekly “Ransom & Dark Web Issues” roundup provides additional context on ongoing ransomware and hacktivist activity (e.g., **Morpheus** targeting a South Korean plating company and **Ailock** republishing prior victims), but it is not clearly tied to the same specific datasets or findings on AI-driven acceleration described in the other reporting.
Jun 29, 2026