BleepingComputer reports that a cybercriminal gang is sending phony ransomware threats to prior victims of ransomware attacks. The gang, which calls itself “Midnight,” claims to have stolen hundreds of gigabytes of data and threatens to leak it if the victim doesn’t pay a ransom. Security firm Kroll said the gang’s ransom notes use the names of more prolific ransomware actors.

New insights from cybersecurity artificial intelligence (AI) company Darktrace shows a 135% increase in novel social engineering attacks from Generative AI. This new form of social engineering that contributed to this increase is much more sophisticated in nature, using linguistics techniques with increased text volume, punctuation, and sentence length to trick their victim. We've recently covered ChatGPT scams and other various AI scams, but this attack proves to be very different.

Using the lure of ChatGPT’s AI as a means to find new ways to make money, scammers trick victims using a phishing-turned-vishing attack that eventually takes victim’s money. It’s probably safe to guess that anyone reading this article has either played with ChatGPT directly or has seen examples of its use on social media. The idea of being able to ask simple questions and get world-class expert answers in just about any area of knowledge is staggering.

The Cyber Police of Ukraine have arrested twelve alleged members of an organized cybercrime group that’s stolen approximately $4.3 million from users across Europe, the Hacker News reports.

Looks like Latitude Finance is trying to give consumers more "latitude" in their exposure to cyber risks. The Australian finance company admittedly fell victim to an attack that has exposed customer data and Latitude Financial has been forced to stop adding new customers from clients such as Apple, Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi as it tries to contain the damage from criminals, who still appear to be active in its computer systems.

Mid-sized businesses – those with 250 to 2000 employees – don’t appear to have what they need to fend off attacks in a number of critical ways. Cybersecurity vendor Huntress’ latest report, The State of Cybersecurity for Mid-Sized Businesses in 2023, shows that mid-sized businesses are in a heap of trouble and simply aren’t prepared for an attack: In short, organizations have no internal resources to ensure the organization is improving its state of cybersecurity daily.

The Federal Trade Commission is alerting consumers about a next-level, more sophisticated family emergency scam that uses AI that imitates the voice of a "family member in distress". They started out with: "You get a call. There's a panicked voice on the line. It's your grandson. He says he's in deep trouble — he wrecked the car and landed in jail. But you can help by sending money. You take a deep breath and think. You've heard about grandparent scams. But darn, it sounds just like him.

Cybersecurity experts continue to warn that advanced chatbots like ChatGPT are making it easier for cybercriminals to craft phishing emails with pristine spelling and grammar, the Guardian reports. Corey Thomas, CEO of Rapid7, stated, “Every hacker can now use AI that deals with all misspellings and poor grammar. The idea that you can rely on looking for bad grammar or spelling in order to spot a phishing attack is no longer the case.

The US FBI is warning of business email compromise (BEC) attacks designed to steal physical goods. While BEC attacks are typically associated with stealing money, criminals can use the same social engineering tactics to hijack deliveries of valuable materials. The FBI says fraudsters are particularly interested in stealing construction materials, agricultural supplies, computer technology hardware and solar energy products.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have arrested four alleged members of an organized crime group known for carrying out business email compromise (BEC) attacks, BleepingComputer reports. The victims of the gang’s attacks lost between $2,500 and $500,000. “Four members of an alleged cyber criminal syndicate accused of money laundering $1.7 million in stolen cash from Australian and overseas victims have been charged in Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne,” the AFP said in a statement.