Ransomware is 35 years old and now a billion-dollar problem. Heres how it could evolve
Summary
It wasnt something that theyd read about or that had been researched," Martin Lee, EMEA lead for Talos, the cyber threat intelligence division of IT equipment giant Cisco, told CNBC in an interview. Hackers targeting people with this program demanded payment in either bitcoin or prepaid cash vouchers — but it was an early example of how crypto became the currency of choice for ransomware attackers. Generative AI tools like OpenAIs ChatGPT allow everyday internet users to insert text-based queries and requests and get sophisticated, humanlike answers in response — and many programmers are even using it to help them write code. Mike Beck, chief information security officer of Darktrace, told CNBCs "Squawk Box Europe" theres a "huge opportunity" for AI — both in arming the cybercriminals and improving productivity and operations within cybersecurity companies. "Outside of RaaS providers and those leveraging stolen or procured toolchains, credentials and system access have proven to be effective," Jake King, security lead at internet search firm Elastic, told CNBC.