In February 2024, the United States experienced the largest healthcare data breach in its history a single ransomware attack that exposed nearly 200 million people’s medical and personal information and disrupted hospitals, pharmacies, and insurers across the country. This wasn’t a sophisticated zero ‑ day exploit. It wasn’t a nation ‑ state superweapon. It wasn’t an AI ‑ powered cyber ‑ apocalypse. It was a single stolen password and a remote access system with no MFA. The Change Healthcare attack is the clearest demonstration yet of how fragile critical infrastructure becomes when identity security is treated as optional. How the Attack Happened The attackers the ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group gained access through a Citrix remote access portal that was protected only by a username and password. No MFA. No conditional access. No behavioural analytics. Once inside, they spent nine days moving laterally, escalating...
AI ‑ Native Malware: The Emerging Reality Behind Adaptive Cyber Threats As AI becomes woven into everyday tools and workflows, the cyber threat landscape is evolving alongside it. One of the most significant shifts is the emergence of AI ‑ native malware malicious software that doesn ’ t just use AI during development but actively integrates AI models into its runtime behaviour. This isn’t science fiction anymore. While we’re not facing a fully autonomous “Skynet” scenario, recent discoveries show that adaptive, AI ‑ driven malware is already operating in the wild. The question is no longer if AI ‑ native malware will exist, but how quickly it will mature and what that means for defenders. What Makes Malware “AI ‑ Native ” ? AI ‑ Assisted Malware Traditional malware created with help from AI tools such as LLMs. Attackers may use AI to: • Write phishing content • Generate exploit code • Speed up reconnaissance But the malware itself behaves conventionall...
