Security News

Threat actors are showing an increased interest in generative artificial intelligence tools, with hundreds of thousands of OpenAI credentials for sale on the dark web and access to a malicious alternative for ChatGPT. Both less skilled and seasoned cybercriminals can use the tools to create more convincing phishing emails that are customized for the intended audience to grow the chances of a successful attack. Hackers tapping into GPT AI. In six months, the users of the dark web and Telegram mentioned ChatGPT, OpenAI's artificial intelligence chatbot, more than 27,000 times, shows data from Flare, a threat exposure management company, shared with BleepingComputer.

In light of these events, I'd like to discuss how OSINT can assist with dark web investigations. Transactions on the dark web often involve cryptocurrency in exchange for illegal goods and services.

Ransomware has been an acute concern for organizations for more than a decade, but one of the more recent trends we see is that groups are now setting up infrastructure, but outsourcing actual infection to "Affiliates" who effectively act as contractors to the Ransomware as a Service group and split the profits at the end of a successful attacks. A ransomware group encrypts a company's data, but first exfiltrates data, which is posted on ransomware blogs on a certain date if the victim doesn't pay.

In this post, we're going to explore common threat actors and their activities on dark web forums versus illicit Telegram communities. Hackers on dark web forums are more commonly known to share more zero-day exploits to other threat actors as well as share with other hackers how to use these exploits to their advantage as well.

Compromised credentials were found within the logs of info-stealing malware traded on illicit dark web marketplaces over the past year, according to Group-IB. The number of available logs containing compromised ChatGPT accounts reached a peak of 26,802 in May 2023.Unauthorized access to ChatGPT accounts may expose confidential or sensitive information, which can be exploited for targeted attacks against companies and their employees.

Singapore-based threat intelligence outfit Group-IB has found ChatGPT credentials in more than 100,000 stealer logs traded on the dark web in the past year. "Group-IB's experts highlight that more and more employees are taking advantage of the Chatbot to optimize their work, be it software development or business communications," said the company, adding that demand for account credentials was gaining "Significant popularity."

Over 100,000 compromised OpenAI ChatGPT account credentials have found their way on illicit dark web marketplaces between June 2022 and May 2023, with India alone accounting for 12,632 stolen credentials. The credentials were discovered within information stealer logs made available for sale on the cybercrime underground, Group-IB said in a report shared with The Hacker News.

Microsoft stands accused by cyber intelligence firm Hold Security of violating an agreement between the pair by misusing Hold's database of more than 360 million sets of credentials culled from the dark web. In a lawsuit filed in King County Superior Court in Washington, Hold said it had an agreement with Microsoft going back to 2014 to grant the Windows giant access to its database of compromised accounts with the expectation that Microsoft would limit use to matching Hold's records against Microsoft customer accounts.

The number of stolen Asian credit card numbers appearing on darkweb crime marts has fallen sharply, cyber security firm Group-IB told Singapore's ATxSG conference on Thursday. Out of 29 million compromised accounts found on sale on the dark web, over 12 million featured top level domains related to India.

Stealer logs represent one of the primary threat vectors for modern companies. Threat actors who purchase stealer logs have the responsibility of distributing the malware to victims.