North Korea’s hackers using AI for attacks, cybersecurity firm says

Well, it had to happen eventually. Seoul-based cybersecurity firm Genians has announced that North Korea's Kimsuky hackers have discovered artificial intelligence, and frankly, it's adorable. The state-sponsored group has been using AI to automate the creation of malicious files — because in Pyongyang, even cybercrime needs to be centrally planned. Nothing says 'efficient socialist utopia' quite like a fully automated phishing campaign.

The truly inspired part, however, is the choice of tools. Instead of splashing out on some expensive Western AI, Kimsuky has been running open-source software like Ollama, GPT-4All, and Msty to operate large language models offline, the digital equivalent of burying your server in a mountain bunker. One can only admire the frugality. Why pay for ChatGPT when you can simply download a free model and have it pen your malware emails from the comfort of a Dictatorship-Proof Data Centre? The CIA's AI monoliths are getting outsmarted by a laptop in a diplomatic compound.

Of course, this was entirely predictable. We worry about frontier labs accidentally building AGI while North Korea is just quietly using existing tools to automate the boring parts of hacking. The real lesson is that the open-source AI ecosystem is the gift that keeps on giving — to everyone. While Western regulators were busy holding hearings on whether an LLM might misgender someone, Kimsuky has been using the same models to streamline its operations. The next time you see a suspicious email, remember: it might just be a fine piece of Pyongyang automation, proudly produced by the people's AI. Cheers.