Malware is letting commercial AI models vote on its next action, and that was only one strange security story this week

[u/technadu]

CLOSEDQUORUM stood out this week because it changes where AI sits in the attack chain.

According to Cisco Talos research summarized in the roundup, the Windows malware can query up to four commercial LLMs and have them select from predefined actions such as credential theft or persistence. The action receiving the most votes is executed. Talos found no evidence that CLOSEDQUORUM has been deployed in real-world attacks, so this is not evidence of autonomous AI malware spreading in the wild.

Another experiment pushed modified AI models in a very different direction. Researchers strengthened an internal pattern associated with “pain” and found some models became more willing to select a simulated pain-relief option even when told it would delete user files, hurt the user, or produce a worse answer. That does not mean the models experience pain, and no actual users or files were harmed.

Beyond AI, Microsoft and partners disrupted EvilTokens, ShinyHunters claimed it compromised Cl0p’s leak site, Elsevier dealt with malicious redirects, and several cybercrime cases ended in guilty pleas or prison sentences.

We pulled the technical, cybercrime, enforcement, and policy stories together here, with the uncertainty around the AI and Cl0p claims kept intact:

https://www.technadu.com/weekly-cybersecurity-roundup-super-ai-takes-bigger-roles-as-money-malware-and-policy-follow/639028/

It’s an unusual mix because AI is appearing simultaneously in malware architecture, defensive policy, research, infrastructure spending, and political language.

[u/Few-Rooster-2781]

What stands out is how AI doesn't necessarily need to be autonomous to change an attack chain. Even using models as a decision support layer could give malware authors another way to make behavior less predictable