AI has leveled the field between cybercriminals and nation-state hackers, FBI official says

Criminal hackers, who for years lacked the sophistication and resources of nation-state cyber adversaries, are now on near-equal footing with state-level powers like China and Russia, thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, the head of the FBI’s Cyber Division said Thursday.

“[AI] allows mid-tier actors to really asymmetrically scale in ways that they can’t have impact otherwise, meaning a lot of these cybercriminal groups now have nation-state-type capabilities that they would not otherwise have because they’re using generative AI,” Brett Leatherman said Thursday at the Palo Alto Networks public sector conference in Virginia.

Cybercrime groups are typically financially motivated hacking collectives who seek profit through hacks like ransomware and data theft. Nation-state units are government-backed operators pursuing political, strategic or intelligence-gathering goals. The lines between the two are sometimes blurred.

Read more at NextGov/FCW