EvilProxy Saves US-Based Cybercriminals from Unemployment

EvilProxy Saves US-Based Cybercriminals from Unemployment

May 03, 2024 / in Blog / by Zafar Khan, RPost CEO

GenAI is obsoleting an unlikely sector of American entrepreneurs.

Armand here, RPost’s product evangelist, writing from beautiful Charlotte. I’ve been discussing security and AI at the International Legal Technology Association conference along with some of my human RPost teammates, Gerlyn, Arianna, and Laura.

While the buzz here in the legal tech and corporate risk community is about how cybercriminals are powering up with a dark version of generative AI, there are some strangely ironic side effects.

We’ve all heard how ChatGPT and AI in general may obsolete some jobs in America. Well, it seems to be doing so not only with professional positions, but also with American cybercriminal entrepreneurs. The most sophisticated cybercriminal masterminds and hacking tools are spearheaded by Russians. One challenge that they have historically had was composing elegantly written American English phishing email with the perfect luring content. To deal with this deficiency, they teamed with local American cybercriminals to operate the last mile, to compose and send these phishing emails. They also shared the criminal exploits with their American cybercriminal colleagues.

Enter ChatGPT. These Russian cybercriminals thought, “Why not use this tool to compose perfectly articulated and grammatically correct phishing email lures with the writing style and in the context of the folks they are posing as?” No more Nigerian Prince email.

So, they did, and one better, they built overlay AI to make it easy to optimize. And more, they realized that these tools could also empower them to write these in Australian English, Japanese, Dutch, Danish, German, and essentially any language. So what happens next? They don’t need their international partnerships with American cybercriminals. They are going direct --- to YOU.

But alas, these Russian cybercriminal masterminds are quite commercial. Concerned for American cybercriminal “unemployment,” they decided to make their hacking tools available for sale to their American counterparts!

Named after their favorite motorcycle-jumping daredevil, Evil Knievel – who we all think was quite cool – they named their tool EvilProxy – which you will see is not cool (for you). This Russian high-end cybercrime tool is now being sold to the mass cybercriminal underworld which makes it easier to compromise (think eavesdrop on) email even in companies that use sophisticated multi-factor authentication tools. Eavesdropping on email is the entry point to plan ransomware, wire fraud, invoice fraud, impostor staffing and business email compromise cybercrimes.

EvilProxy is a tool that, for a mere hundred bucks or so, the cybercriminal gangs will let other cybercriminals use for 10 days, which can intercept the (now I am getting technical here) multi-factor authentication log-in token, which will essentially give the cybercriminal keys to your email kingdom; login access to all of your email and single sign-on connected apps.

There really is no way to win against these cybercriminals on your own, without also upping your game. Don’t be an email daredevil and wait to see what happens. Rather, we recommend that you start using RMail’s PRE-Crime tools that empower you to see the unseen; to eavesdrop on cybercriminal eavesdroppers. You’ll be amazed at what this tool lets you see so you can pre-empt cybercrimes in progress within the ecosystem of people you send invoices to, transact business with, or receive legitimate payment requests from.

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