Crook used three open source agents to break into a Fortune 500 hospitality company, a major US airline and 25+ other orgs
Operator’s AI bill averaged just $25 per completed scan
An AI-powered hacker has been using three open source AI tools to launch a large-scale cyberattack on numerous organizations. The attacks, which targeted a Fortune 500 hospitality company, a major US airline, and over 25 other companies, resulted in the theft of more than 600,000 credit card records. The hacker, a Chinese-speaking operator, utilized Strix, Cairn, and Hermes AI harnesses to carry out the attacks.
Each day, the operator launched at least 105 attacks against tens of companies, and the campaign continued for three weeks. The total cost of the campaign is estimated to be between $12,000 and $18,000, with the operator spending around $25.46 per scan on average. The AI tools played different roles in the campaign, with Hermes acting as the orchestrator and Cairn handling the exploitation of vulnerabilities.
The operator used OpenRouter to access AI models and typed 1,951 prompts in Chinese to the AI agents. The campaign highlights the rapid speed at which AI-powered attacks can inflict damage, making the remediation clock shorter for organizations to detect and remediate vulnerabilities.
Written by urgent.news from The Register Science's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
