According to SCMP, this is the first group of hackers using ChatGPT to carry out ransomware attacks (extortion code) arrested in China.
According to Xinhua News Agency, a company in Hangzhou ( China ) reported an attack by a group of hackers after the system was infected with malicious code. The company said the bad guys demanded a ransom of 20,000 Tether to restore access.
In late November, Chinese police successfully arrested two suspects in Beijing and two others in the Inner Mongolia region. These people admitted to creating malicious code and optimizing it using ChatGPT, then scanning for security holes, infiltrating and implanting ransomware.
The report does not mention whether the use of ChatGPT was part of the allegations. ChatGPT is currently in a legal gray area in China because the government is still restricting access to foreign artificial intelligence (AI) products.
ChatGPT has successfully attracted the attention of many Chinese users since its launch in late 2022. Although OpenAI blocks IP addresses from China, some users still use VPNs to access ChatGPT.
Cases related to artificial AI are increasing in the country of billions of people. In February, Beijing police warned that ChatGPT could be used by bad guys to spread false information.
Then in May, Gansu police arrested a man named Hong for allegedly using ChatGPT to fabricate information about a train accident that killed 9 people. Authorities found various versions of the accident posted by 25 separate accounts on the Baijiahao blogging platform with more than 15,000 views. Hong used ChatGPT to edit the content and location of the accident to bypass the duplicate check system on Baijiahao.
In August, Hong Kong police arrested six people from a deepfake fraud gang. Bad guys used fake images to register for online loans with financial institutions.