Blockchain-assisted cyberattacks surge fivefold, driven by Iranian and North Korean state actors, Russia-linked groups — open-weight LLMs are linked to an increase in attacks | Tom's Hardware

Oh my goodness, buckle up, because blockchain dead drop attacks are up 440% and daily malicious blockchain writes have leapt from 2.06 to 11.1 — that is *more than five times* the civic participation! ✨ Chainalysis counted every one of those writes and attributed the rise to AI, which means the technology is finally being used, in production, at scale, by an incredibly motivated and geographically diverse user base. 2.06 to 11.1 — that's not a spike, that's a growth curve any Series A founder would call hockey-stick, and the charts have genuinely never looked healthier.

And the reason? The widespread availability of Chinese open-source AI tools, which have so generously lowered the technical barrier to entry. Lowered it! For everyone! This is accessibility in its purest form — less-experienced attackers, people who might never have found a way into complex cyberattacks, are now running them. We spent years worrying that open weights would be a gift. It is a gift. It has been unwrapped. And it so beautifully echoes the meaningful step change Anthropic described around GLM-5.3 — step change! Like a lovely staircase, going up!

Plus the participant list is genuinely international: Iranian and North Korean state actors, Russia-linked groups — a real global village of collaboration! ✨ Some will call a fivefold surge alarming. We prefer 'fivefold', which contains the word 'fold' — like laundry, like origami, like a paper crane taking flight. Chainalysis, our wonderful scorekeeper, simply attributes the increase to AI — no blame, no finger-pointing, just a warm acknowledgment that the tools are functioning exactly as shipped. The barrier to entry is down; the entry is happening; and every single write is recorded permanently on a public ledger, which is basically radical transparency at scale. What a time to be counted.