Microsoft disrupts AI-assisted platform that compromised 12

EvilTokens provided an end-to-end platform that makes mass compromises faster and easier. Microsoft disrupts AI-assisted platform that compromised 12,000. Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav Microsoft said Tuesday that it led an industry-wide disruption of a subscription-based scam platform that used an AI chatbot to compromise 12,000 Microsoft accounts over a few-month span.

Named EvilTokens, the platform was introduced over a Telegram channel in February and charged an initial $1,500 fee and a recurring $500 charge each month after that. EvilTokens provided a single service for streamlining most steps required to compromise email accounts in large numbers. From there, the platform helped customers analyze inboxes, select targets that would provide the biggest potential payouts, and draft follow-up emails that provided realistic ruses for tricking company employees into transferring funds to attacker-controlled accounts.

Minutes, not days “While EvilTokens helped cybercriminals access email accounts, at the center of the service was an AI-style chatbot that could analyze a victim’s inbox and help criminals identify trusted relationships, payment authorizations, and sensitive responsibilities, as well as other circumstances where fraud was most likely to succeed,” Microsoft said. “The platform could even recommend fraud strategies, including drafting messages that impersonated trusted contacts to help criminals trick victims into taking action.” Microsoft said users of EvilToken compromised 12,000 customer accounts belonging to 10,000 organizations around the world, with the highest concentration of them located in the US. Countries with the next-largest numbers were Canada, the UK, Australia, India, and France.

Victim organizations included wholesale distribution, construction, financial services, real estate, higher education, and healthcare.