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WIRED — Security

AI Tools Are Helping Mediocre North Korean Hackers Steal Millions

Andy Greenberg, Matt Burgess · 2026-04-22 · Read original ↗

ATT&CK techniques detected

7 predictions
T1588.002Tool
95%
“in february last year, openai said it had banned suspected north korean accounts that it detected using chatgpt at multiple stages of fraudulent it worker schemes, including during interviews to generate answers to technical questions and for writing code once someone had gained …”
T1588.002Tool
76%
“ai tools of us - based companies, including those of openai, cursor, and anima, the hacker group — which expel calls hexagonalrodent — “ vibe coded ” almost every part of its intrusion campaign, from writing their malware to building the fake websites of companies used in its phi…”
T1657Financial Theft
67%
“##curity community after disabling the wannacry ransomware worm created by north korean hackers. emoji - littered, ai - written code hexagonalrodent ’ s hacking operation focused on tricking crypto developers with fraudulent job offers at tech firms, going so far as to create ful…”
T1588.002Tool
55%
“ai tools are helping mediocre north korean hackers steal millions the advent of ai hacking tools has raised fears of a near future in which anyone can use automated tools to dig up exploitable vulnerabilities in any piece of software, like a kind of digital intrusion superpower. …”
T1486Data Encrypted for Impact
48%
“##curity community after disabling the wannacry ransomware worm created by north korean hackers. emoji - littered, ai - written code hexagonalrodent ’ s hacking operation focused on tricking crypto developers with fraudulent job offers at tech firms, going so far as to create ful…”
T1588.002Tool
42%
“being sent over the border to work in it operations, and only a few of them really know what they ' re doing, ” hutchins says. “ but then they ' re able to use generative ai to get a leg up and actually run fairly successful hacking campaigns. ” in fact, rather than reduce the nu…”
T1588.002Tool
42%
“##ltrating western organizations through its it worker schemes. security researchers have likened north korea ' s cyber operations to functioning like a “ state - sanctioned crime syndicate, ” which ultimately works to fund the nation ’ s nuclear weaponry, build the country ’ s i…”

Summary

One group of hackers used AI for everything from vibe coding their malware to creating fake company websites—and stole as much as $12 million in three months.