Cybersecurity
Ransomware Hackers Used AI Images, Microsoft Flaw in Campaign
- Exotic Lily group worked with Russian-speaking Conti gang
- LinkedIn profiles used to boost legitimacy in hacking attempts
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A group of ransomware hackers used a variety of techniques to try breaching hundreds of companies last year, exploiting a vulnerability in Microsoft Corp.’s Windows and using artificial intelligence technology to create fake LinkedIn profiles, Alphabet Inc.’s Google found.
The group, which Google refers to as Exotic Lily in research published Thursday, is known as an initial access broker. Such groups specialize at breaking into corporate computer networks, and then providing that access to other cybercriminal syndicates that deploy malware that locks computers and demands a ransom.