A recent investigation by Hunt.io has revealed a sophisticated cyber campaign by Chinese hackers utilizing AI agents to automate cyberattacks across multiple countries, including Taiwan, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Named 'SecFlow', this operation integrates advanced AI models to automate various phases of cyber attacks, including reconnaissance and exploitation.
The campaign specifically targeted government, education, and industrial sectors, leading to significant breaches, including one that exposed sensitive data from a Chinese government office and a university AI platform. The attackers leveraged vulnerabilities in Java applications and used innovative techniques such as steganography to hide malicious code in image files.
This marks the second incident in recent months where commercial AI tools were intertwined with state-sponsored cyber espionage, underlining a growing trend in the cyber threat landscape.