Persistent Adversaries Regenerate, According to TrendMicro Report
In the digital age, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionised many aspects of our lives. However, its potential for misuse has become increasingly evident, as highlighted by recent cybersecurity incidents in Australia and New Zealand.
Criminal activities involving AI have been on the rise, with malware being hidden in legitimate AI software, the operation of criminal Language Models (LLMs), and the sale of jailbreak-as-a-service offerings. Cybercriminals have also ramped up their deepfake offerings, using them for virtual kidnapping scams, targeted Business Email Compromise (BEC) type impersonation fraud, and bypassing Know Your Customer (KYC) checks.
Australia has found itself in the crossfire of these digital attacks. In 2024, the country encountered nearly 72 million email threats, making it a hotbed for cybercrime. Australian systems have been targeted from within and without, with Australia ranking 8th globally for inbound attacks, 10th for outbound attacks, and among the top ten countries surveyed for URL victims. A total of 21.6 million detections of malicious URLs were made in Australia, and approximately 259,000 detections of malicious activities originated from within the country.
New Zealand, too, has not been spared. The country ranked highly with 5.4 million instances of malicious URLs being accessed and blocked by Trend Micro products. A total of 1,450 ransomware incidents were blocked in New Zealand in 2024.
Notable Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) campaigns have exploited geopolitical tensions, such as Earth Lusca's campaign around the China-Taiwan relations. APT campaigns have also targeted cloud environments, apps, and services by abusing exposed credentials, dangling resources, vulnerabilities, and even legitimate (but misconfigured) tools. State-aligned actors have compromised internet-facing routers for anonymization of targeted attacks.
Cybercriminals have been tricking generative AI bots into answering questions that go against their own policies, primarily for developing malware and social engineering lures. Trojan malware has been developed to harvest biometric data for bypassing KYC checks.
The digital landscape is evolving rapidly, and so too are the threats. Mick McCluney, TrendMicro ANZ Field CTO, emphasised the need for the industry to respond to the use of AI by malicious actors by designing security strategies to account for evolving threats. Trend Micro, for one, blocked over 75.46 billion threats for customers in the first half of the year.
As we navigate this digital frontier, it is crucial to remain vigilant and proactive in our cybersecurity measures. The potential for AI to revolutionise our lives is immense, but so is its potential for misuse. It is up to us to ensure that the benefits of AI outweigh the risks.
