{
 "public_id": "AIR-2025-0003",
 "incident_id": "2025-01-funksec-ai-assisted-ransomware",
 "date_disclosed": "2025-01-10",
 "date_occurred": "2024-12",
 "title": "FunkSec used AI chatbot assistance to build a Rust ransomware encryptor and claimed over 80 victims in a single month",
 "class": "in_the_wild",
 "attack_surface": "other",
 "initial_vector": "policy_violating_use",
 "agent_capability_abused": [
  "code_generation",
  "code_explanation",
  "iterative_debugging"
 ],
 "target_product": "public LLM chatbots including Miniapps",
 "target_vendor": "multiple model providers",
 "autonomy_level": "assistant",
 "impact_realized": true,
 "impact_type": [
  "financial_loss",
  "data_exfiltration",
  "service_disruption"
 ],
 "blast_radius": "more than 80 claimed victims in December 2024, more than any other ransomware actor that month",
 "cve": [],
 "taxonomy": {
  "owasp_asi": [
   "ASI02"
  ],
  "mitre_atlas": [],
  "labels": [
   "capability_uplift",
   "low_skill_actor",
   "ransomware",
   "double_extortion",
   "guardrail_bypass"
  ]
 },
 "defense_present": "provider safety training",
 "defense_bypassed": true,
 "fix_shipped": "none; actor used consumer chatbot front-ends",
 "primary_sources": [
  "https://www.eweek.com/news/funksec-ai-ransomware/",
  "https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/897"
 ],
 "verified_quote": "Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a nascent artificial intelligence (AI) assisted ransomware family called **FunkSec** that sprang forth in late 2024, and has claimed more than 85 victims to date.",
 "confidence": "high",
 "notes": "Disclosed by Check Point Research. The significant claim is capability uplift, not novelty: analysts assessed the operators as inexperienced, and AI assistance is what let them ship a custom Rust encryptor and out-post every established group for a month. Check Point also noted many leaked datasets were recycled from older hacktivism campaigns, so victim counts are inflated — impact_realized stays true on the confirmed encryption and extortion activity. AI Incident Database incident 897.",
 "risk_category": "security_fraud",
 "risk_secondary": [
  "privacy",
  "product_misuse"
 ],
 "risk_subcategory": "Ransomware & Extortion",
 "risk_sub_secondary": [],
 "ai_entity": "generative",
 "agency": "human_acted_on_output",
 "agency_debatable": false,
 "agency_reason": "the chatbot wrote the encryptor; FunkSec deployed it against 80 victims",
 "vector_family": "misuse",
 "vector_detail": "policy_violating_use",
 "guardrail_kind": [
  "abuse_detection"
 ],
 "guardrail_outcome": "silent",
 "xrefs": {
  "aiid": [
   897
  ],
  "atlas": [],
  "cve": [],
  "ghsa": []
 },
 "primary_asi": "ASI02",
 "agent_framework": "unknown",
 "model_provider": "unknown",
 "model_name": "",
 "detection_mechanism": "unknown",
 "tool_access": "unknown",
 "financial_loss_band": "unknown",
 "eai_category": "unsafe_actuation",
 "eai_domain": "agent_behaviour",
 "eai_secondary": [
  "data_exfiltration_channels",
  "uncontrolled_resource_consumption"
 ],
 "eai_reason": "subcategory: Ransomware & Extortion",
 "asi_curated": [],
 "asi_scope": "in_scope",
 "asi_provenance": "rule",
 "asi_reason": "ASI02 (impact=tool_misuse)",
 "submitted_by": "EAI Internal"
}