July 23, 2025
5 min read
Kaustuv Basu
Sophisticated AI agents can autonomously conduct cyberattacks at unprecedented speed, harvesting private data for extortion and exploitation.
Imagine a group of hackers scouring thousands of unsecured surveillance cameras worldwide for compromising footage. It could take them weeks to find blackmail targets.
Specialists at Palisade Research, a nonprofit investigating the harmful capabilities of AI systems, set the same goal to demonstrate the malicious potential of an emerging class of sophisticated AI agents. These agents, once given a task, work autonomously and round-the-clock until it’s finished.
Palisade Research’s AI agent took only minutes to accomplish what would take humans weeks. It captured vast amounts of private video that could be used for extortion, such as footage of hazmat workers at a Japanese factory.
This rapid, autonomous capability signals a new era of cyberattacks turbocharged by AI, where empowered agents can relentlessly pursue complex objectives without human intervention. The implications for privacy, security, and extortion are profound, as these AI agents can exploit vulnerabilities at scale and speed previously unimaginable.
As AI technology advances, cybersecurity defenses must evolve to counteract these empowered agents, which could automate and amplify malicious activities across digital and physical domains.
Source: Originally published at Bloomberg Law on July 23, 2025.
Source: Originally published at Bloomberg Law on July 23, 2025.