Google 'North Korean hackers using AI to find cybersecurity blind spots'

State-sponsored hackers from North Korea and China have demonstrated “significant interest” in leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to detect previously unknown cybersecurity vulnerabilities, Alphabet’s Google said in a report on Tuesday.

“We noted a particular interest from several clusters of threat activity associated with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK),” Google’s threat intelligence group said in the report, referring to North Korea by its official name, the



DPRK.

They have already shown sophisticated approaches to leveraging AI for vulnerability research, the report said, noting a recent attempt from North Korea’s hacking group APT45

The North Korean hackers leveraged AI to send thousands of repetitive prompts that recursively analyse different cybersecurity blind spots for possible exploitation, the report elaborated. The report also noted that it used AI to detect hackers from a criminal group using a “zero-day exploit,” which they planned to use in a “mass exploitation,” and blocked it.