{"id":59998,"date":"2024-02-14T13:46:04","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T13:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/microsoft-says-it-caught-hackers-from-china-russia-iran-using-its-ai-tools\/"},"modified":"2024-02-14T13:46:04","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T13:46:04","slug":"microsoft-says-it-caught-hackers-from-china-russia-iran-using-its-ai-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/microsoft-says-it-caught-hackers-from-china-russia-iran-using-its-ai-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft says it caught hackers from China, Russia, Iran using its AI tools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>State-backed hackers from Russia, China, and Iran have been using tools from Microsoft-backed OpenAI to hone their skills and trick their targets, according to a <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"link--external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/business\/security-insider\/reports\/cyber-signals\/cyber-signals-issue-6-navigating-cyberthreats-and-strengthening-defenses\/\">report<\/a> published on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Microsoft said in its report it had tracked hacking groups affiliated with Russian military intelligence, Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard, and the Chinese and North Korean governments as they tried to perfect their hacking campaigns using large language models.<\/p>\n<p>Those computer programmes, often called artificial intelligence, draw on massive amounts of text to generate human-sounding responses. The company announced the find as it rolled out a blanket ban on state-backed hacking groups using its AI products.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIndependent of whether there\u2019s any violation of the law or any violation of terms of service, we just don\u2019t want those actors that we\u2019ve identified that we track and know are threat actors of various kinds we don\u2019t want them to have access to this technology,\u201d Microsoft Vice President for Customer Security Tom Burt told <em>Reuters<\/em> in an interview ahead of the report\u2019s release.<\/p>\n<p>Russian, North Korean, and Iranian diplomatic officials didn\u2019t immediately return messages seeking comment on the allegations.<\/p>\n<p>China\u2019s US embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said it opposed \u201cgroundless smears and accusations against China\u201d and advocated for the \u201csafe, reliable and controllable\u201d deployment of AI technology to \u201cenhance the common well-being of all mankind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The allegation that state-backed hackers have been caught using AI tools to help boost their spying capabilities is likely to underline concerns about the rapid proliferation of the technology and its potential for abuse.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1755866\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Senior cybersecurity officials in the West have been warning since last year that rogue actors were abusing such tools, although specifics have, until now, been thin on the ground.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is one of the first, if not the first, instances of an AI company coming out and discussing publicly how cybersecurity threat actors use AI technologies,\u201d said Bob Rotsted, who leads cybersecurity threat intelligence at OpenAI.<\/p>\n<p>OpenAI and Microsoft described the hackers\u2019 use of their AI tools as \u201cearly-stage\u201d and \u201cincremental.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Burt said neither had seen cyber spies make any breakthroughs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe really saw them just using this technology like any other user,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The report described hacking groups using the large language models differently.<\/p>\n<p>Hackers alleged to working on behalf of Russia\u2019s military spy agency, widely known as the GRU, used the models to research \u201cvarious satellite and radar technologies that may pertain to conventional military operations in Ukraine\u201d, Microsoft said.<\/p>\n<p>Microsoft said North Korean hackers used the models to generate content \u201cthat would likely be for use in spear-phishing campaigns\u201d against regional experts.<\/p>\n<p>Iranian hackers also leaned on the models to write more convincing emails, Microsoft said, at one point using them to draft a message attempting to lure \u201cprominent feminists\u201d to a booby-trapped website.<\/p>\n<p>The software giant said Chinese state-backed hackers were also experimenting with large language models, for example, to ask questions about rival intelligence agencies, cybersecurity issues and \u201cnotable individuals\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Neither Burt nor Rotsted would be drawn on the volume of activity or how many accounts had been suspended. And Burt defended the zero-tolerance ban on hacking groups \u2014 which doesn\u2019t extend to Microsoft offerings such as its search engine Bing \u2014 by pointing to the novelty of AI and the concern over its deployment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis technology is both new and incredibly powerful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>State-backed hackers from Russia, China, and Iran have been using tools from Microsoft-backed OpenAI to hone their skills and trick their targets, according to a report published on Wednesday. Microsoft said in its report it had tracked hacking groups affiliated with Russian military intelligence, Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard, and the Chinese and North Korean governments as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/02\/1417553714bfdc1.jpg?r=175549","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}