AI-Powered Ransomware Has Arrived With 'PromptLock'

It was probably inevitable — analysts have spotted the first known ransomware strain powered by artificial intelligence. ESET malware researchers Anton Cherepanov and Peter Strycek discovered the emerging strain, which they have named “PromptLock.” Although it has not yet been observed in active cyberattacks, the researchers said the PromptLock ransomware appears to be under development and nearly ready to be unleashed onto the threat landscape. While threat actors have used generative AI tools to develop malware, PromptLock appears to be the first case of ransomware that uses an AI model as its engine. In a post on LinkedIn, Cherepanov reported that PromptLock leverages the gpt-oss:20b model from OpenAI locally using the Ollama API to be able to create new scripts on the fly and in real time.

To read the complete article see: AI-Powered Ransomware - PromptLock \n LinkedIn post is here: LinkedIn Post by Anton Cherepanov \nSee also: Security Week